Republican Senator Fires Back at Conspiracy Theorist Elon Musk

When asked by CNN reporter Jake Tapper to react to recent conspiracy theories from Elon Musk concerning his bipartisan border legislation, Republican Congressman James Lankford publicly advised Musk to focus on the mass Tesla recall. 

Lankford, a conservative Republican from Oklahoma publicly endorsed for reelection by Donald Trump in 2022, has been making the media circuit to defend bipartisan legislation designed to address the so-called crisis at the southern border.

For months, Lankford has worked closely with independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema and Democratic Senator Chris Murphy to draft a comprehensive bill addressing the influx of encounters with undocumented migrants at the US-Mexico border, as well as funding war efforts in Ukraine and Israel.

Encouraged by Donald Trump from afar, MAGA Republicans in both chambers of Congress have voiced opposition to the bill, worried that it would give President Biden another legislative victory on a major wedge issue months before the election.

In recent weeks, it was reported that Trump’s pressure campaign was beginning to affect establishment Republicans in the Senate, such that Mitch McConnell began to distance himself from the effort.

On Tapper’s show, Tapper presented Lankford with Elon Musk’s X post condemning Lankford’s legislation, in which Musk claimed that “the long-term goal of the so-called ‘border security’ bill is enabling legals to vote. It will do the opposite of securing the voter!”

Tapper asked the Republican Senator to react to Musk’s lies coming from “a huge megaphone.”

“Well, I think he needs to go back to doing the 2 million Teslas that are currently being recalled, to be able to focus on that,” Lankford responded, referring to a recently-announced mass recall of Musk’s iconic electric cars, before reminding Musk and the audience that federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections.

Video credits: CNN