Elon Musk, addressing at a town hall in Pennsylvania on Saturday night to endorse Republican Donald Trump, downplayed the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol and urged supporters to vote early in the presidential swing state, calling mail ballots as a “recipe for fraud.”
The free-flowing discussion inside a ballroom at a downtown Lancaster hotel covered a wide range of themes, from space exploration and the Tesla cybertruck to immigration and the efficacy of mental medications. The town hall was part of Musk’s attempts, via his super PAC, to aid Trump in battleground states ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election against Democrat Kamala Harris.
Musk, whom Trump has promised to include in his government if he wins next month, spent nearly two hours answering questions from town hall attendees. While most were laudatory and addressed a wide range of themes, one was very pointed: A man wanted to know what Musk would say to concerns from voters that Trump’s election could lead to democracy backsliding in the U.S. considering his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
While calling it a fair question, Musk also said that the Jan. 6 attack by Trump’s supporters has been called “some sort of violent insurrection, which is simply not the case” — a response that drew applause from the crowd. More than 100 law enforcement personnel were injured in the attack, some beaten with their own weapons, when a mob of Trump supporters who believed his lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him stormed the Capitol to stop the certification of votes.
Musk also claimed that people “who say Trump is a threat to democracy are themselves a threat to democracy,” a comment that was also cheered by the crowd of several hundred people packed tightly into the ballroom. Many more watched the event on X, the social media platform Musk purchased two years ago.
Trump, he said, “did actually tell people to not be violent.” While Trump did tell the crowd on Jan. 6 to protest “peacefully and patriotically,” he also encouraged them to “fight like hell” to stop Democrat Joe Biden from becoming the president.
Musk, the world’s richest man, has committed more than $70 million to boost Trump in the election and, at events on behalf of his super PAC, has encouraged supporters to embrace voting early. Still, echoing some of Trump’s misgivings about the method, Musk raised his own doubts about the process. He said that, in the future, mail ballots should not be accepted, calling them a strange anomaly that got popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic and raising the prospect of fraud.
Mail-in ballots are protected by a number of precautions, including distinct ballot verification processes in each state, which need a voter’s signature.
The Jan. 6 question was an exception in Musk’s back-and-forth with the audience, during which he was repeatedly complimented as a visionary and asked for advice and ideas on education, arm wrestling, tax loopholes, and if he would buy the Chicago White Sox. (He claimed he was a techie and had to pick his battles.)
Musk said he was in favor of “not heavy handed” regulation of artificial intelligence and railed against “woke religion” as “fundamentally an extinctionist religion.” He said the U.S. birth rate is a significant concern.
He said he believes Jesus was a real person who lived about 2,000 years ago and, when asked for the best advice he’s ever received, replied: “I recommend studying physics.”
He also called a woman to the stage to give her a large $1 million check, part of his promotion to give away $1 million a day to a voter in a swing state who has signed his super PAC’s petition backing the U.S. Constitution.
The giveaways are fine with Josh Fox, 32, a UPS driver from Dillsburg, Pennsylvania.
“That’s cool,” Fox said, waiting to get into the rally earlier Saturday. “It would be nice to have it.”
Fox, who plans to vote for Trump, dismissed any suggestion the money may violate federal election rules.
“It’s about driving in support and driving in people who are in support of the Constitution,” Fox said.
