Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images.
- Elon Musk told CNBC he would “do the right thing” if invited to White House industry events.
- White House officials are concerned Musk might embarrass the president or his team, according to CNBC.
- Musk has publicly criticized President Joe Biden for ignoring Tesla.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said officials have “nothing to worry about” when it comes to inviting him to White House events, CNBC reported on Tuesday.
Musk was responding to CNBC’s query about the White House’s concerns he could embarrass the Biden administration at such functions. The network attributed the concerns to a person familiar with the discussions.
The White House did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for clarification over those discussions.
“They have nothing to worry about,” Musk told CNBC. “I would do the right thing.”
But, Musk repeated his criticism that Biden has been snubbing Tesla.
“Biden has pointedly ignored Tesla at every turn and falsely stated to the public that GM leads the electric car industry, when in fact Tesla produced over 300,000 electric vehicles last quarter and GM produced 26,” Musk told the outlet.
Musk has been hitting out at President Joe Biden on Twitter.
Last Wednesday, Musk reminded Biden twice that Tesla’s Model 3 is the most American-made car in history in response to the president’s tweet a week earlier about making federal government vehicles electric, bringing more manufacturing jobs to the US, and building supply chains at home.
In his first reply, Musk linked to a USA Today report about Tesla’s Model 3 being the first electric vehicle to reach number one in Cars.com’s 2021 American-Made Index. Hours later, he responded again, tweeting: “Model 3 is literally the most made in America car in – well of course – America.”
In January, Musk called the president “a damp sock puppet in human form” after Biden posted a video on Twitter, saying automakers like GM and Ford were making “more electric vehicles in the US than ever before.”
“Starts with a T, Ends with an A, ESL in the middle,” Musk tweeted in response to Biden’s video.
In early February, Biden acknowledged in a speech that Tesla was America’s “largest electric-vehicle manufacturer.”
A White House spokesperson said in a Tuesday email to CNBC that “Tesla has done extraordinary things for electric vehicles, and that’s a big part of why the whole industry now knows EVs are the future.”
But the representative was also critical of Musk, saying, “Tesla also benefited greatly from past EV tax credits, but unfortunately, their CEO has suggested an opposition to new EV tax credits,” per CNBC.
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