“My company is in the government so I’m struggling,” says Tesla CEO.
White House adviser Elon Musk rejected concerns about a potential conflict of interest and said he was under intense scrutiny while government work actually puts his business at stake.
On the March 28 episode of “Special Report,” Fox News host Bret Baier noted that Musk’s leadership on SpaceX and Starlink both have contracts with the federal government. Baier asked Musk to tell people “there is no conflict of interest in contracts with the government, what you’re doing.”
Among those scrutinizing Musk’s involvement with the administration are Congressional Democrats such as Officer Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif).
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Schiff, Warren, five other senators, and House Judicial Rankings member Jamie Ruskin (D-Md.), sent a letter in February urging Musk to publish his financial disclosure documents.
They said, “The American people have no way of assessing your conflicts of interest fully, the possibility that those conflicts could affect your agenda within the Trump administration, or the way your financial interests are on a course of conflict with the public interest.”
Musk’s interview came amid a barrage of lawsuits over his government’s efficiency, concerns about his business interests, and a series of law enforcement actions in response to an attack on Tesla’s property. He is Tesla’s CEO and designs and manufactures electric vehicles.
The incidents involving Teslaev “involve arson, shooting and vandalism, including graffiti expressing dissatisfaction with people they perceived as racist, fascist or political enemies.”
Musk told Baier on March 28th: “My company is suffering because I’m in the government.”
Musk said on March 26 that “I’ve never asked for benefits from a business. I was actually a bit surprised. I might do that, I might do it. I want him to do the right thing, he wants me to do the right thing.” In February, Trump said, “There’s no conflict of interest” and “Maybe it doesn’t even matter even space.”
Zachary Stieber and Jacob Burg contributed to this report.
