Donald Trump-supporting tech billionaire Elon Musk has faced backlash after joking about the assassination of Vice President Kamala Harris for the second time since she became a presidential candidate.
“Nobody’s even trying to kill Kamala because it’s pointless,” he said in a Tuesday interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, prompting both to laugh.
“What do you achieve? Nothing, you just bought another puppet,” Musk said.
“It’s deep and true though,” Carlson responded.
Elon Musk is pictured in Butler, Pennsylvania, on October 5, 2024. In an interview with Tucker Carlson Musk joked about how nobody has tried to assassinate Kamala Harris.
Alex Brandon/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“It would be pointless,” Musk continued.
Newsweek has contacted a spokesperson for Musk and Harris’ campaign for comment.
Musk’s comment marks the second time he has joked about nobody having made an assassination attempt on Harris following bids to assassinate Trump by two people, Ryan Routh and Thomas Crooks.
In September the billionaire, a major U.S. government contractor, wrote on X, the social media platform he owns, “no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.” He faced intense backlash for the tone of the post, and later deleted it, explaining that it was a joke and that critics did not find it funny because they did not “know the context.”
Musk’s Tuesday comment to Carlson has drawn similar criticisms. Republican former congressman Adam Kinzinger, a frequent Trump and Musk critic, said it was dangerous and inappropriate for a major government contractor to joke about the assassination of a sitting vice president and presidential candidate.
“The government needs to cut @elonmusk and his companies out of contracting for the US Govt,” Kinzinger wrote on X, in reply to a video of the interview segment. “I can think of nothing more dangerous than this.”
Olivia Troye, a former White House adviser in the Trump administration and frequent Trump critic, also wrote that Musk’s rhetoric was dangerous.
“Joking about assassinating our elected leaders is not just tasteless—it’s dangerous,” Troye wrote on X. “In today’s divided climate, we need responsible voices, not reckless rhetoric that normalizes violence. It’s un-American for Elon Musk & Tucker Carlson to make light of such serious threats. Our leaders—and all Americans—deserve better.”
Democrat strategist Simon Rosenberg reposted the video on X and wrote: “The owner of this platform is a deeply unwell person.”
While two gunmen have gotten within several hundred yards of Trump this summer, Musk’s claim that “nobody’s even trying to kill Kamala,” and his previous claim the “no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala” are both false, in that several people have threatened or attempted to assassinate them, but were apprehended.
In August, the FBI arrested a man in Virginia after he allegedly made online threats about setting Harris on fire.
In 2021, police in Iowa pulled over Kuacha Xiong, a 27-year-old California man. Upon an examination of Xiong’s car, officers found that the vehicle appeared to have been “lived in” for an apparent cross-country trip and discovered that he had a “hit list” of public figures and an AR-15 rifle in his trunk. It emerged that he intended to kill or kidnap Biden and Harris. Xiong pleaded guilty in January to making threats against the president and vice president.
Last year, FBI agents shot and killed a 75-year-old Utah man, Craig Robertson, while searching his home after he had allegedly threatened online to kill Harris and to assassinate Biden during a planned visit to Utah.
Also in 2023, a 19-year-old Missouri man was arrested after allegedly ramming a U-Haul truck into barriers outside the White House. He was charged with multiple crimes, including threatening to kill the president.
In 2022, Secret Service agents arrested 37-year-old John Andrew Bazor Jr., from Alabama, on charges of making threats against Biden, including in a call to the White House in which he allegedly said: “I am coming to assassinate the president.”
