Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) on Thursday slammed what he called senior Trump adviser Elon Musk’s loyalties to billionaires after Musk accused the Arizona senator and adorned fight veteran of placing different international locations forward of the USA, the newest salvo of their rancorous feud.
“I mean, who is Elon standing with at this point? A bunch of billionaires,” Kelly mentioned on CNN when requested about Musk’s newest assault in opposition to his character.
Musk had known as Kelly a “traitor” on his social media platform X earlier this month after Kelly visited Ukraine to find out how fluctuating U.S. help for the nation was affecting the morale of Ukrainians.
Then Musk, who was born in South Africa and have become a citizen of Canada after which the USA, doubled down in an interview with Fox Information’s Bret Baier on his accusation that Kelly isn’t loyal to the USA.
“I feel someone ought to … care concerning the pursuits of the USA above the pursuits of one other nation. In the event that they don’t, they’re a traitor,” Musk mentioned.
When Baier famous that Kelly is a adorned veteran, former astronaut and sitting senator, Musk didn’t budge.
“That doesn’t mean it’s okay for him to put the interests of another country above America,” he mentioned.
When requested about Musk’s newest assault, Kelly informed CNN’s Erin Burnett that he wasn’t certain whether or not it deserved a response however then ticked off his lengthy listing of service to the nation.
“I’ve spent an entire career standing up for our country, defending our country, flying in combat over Iraq, flying in space, on the space shuttle, serving in the United States Senate,” he mentioned. “My whole life has been about serving this nation.”
Then he contrasted his document to Musk’s efforts because the chief of the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) to push federal staff out of their jobs and shutter longstanding federal companies, such because the U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth.
Democrats have additionally jumped on Musk’s remark that Social Safety is “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” accusing him of wanting to chop this system to pay for tax cuts for the rich.
“I mean, who is Elon standing with at this point? A bunch of billionaires. It seems to me that some folks in this administration sort of switched,” he added.
Kelly then implicitly questioned Musk’s loyalty to the nation by mentioning that his stance on the Ukraine-Russia conflict aligns with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a longtime adversary of the USA.
“I would put Elon at this point in the category of being much closer to Russia on this issue,” he mentioned.
“I want this thing to end as much as anybody,” he mentioned of the conflict. “But he throws this traitor word around, at least with regards to me, fairly freely. I don’t think he’s a serious guy, and he hasn’t given this a lot of thought.”
