Elon Musk spoke for the primary time at a Donald Trump rally, telling an enormous crowd in Butler, PA that the election was a “must-win state of affairs.”
“As you may see, I’m not simply MAGA, I’m darkish MAGA,” Musk, sporting a black Make America Nice Once more hat, instructed the group.
The rally was Trump’s first in Butler since he survived an assassination try there in July. Shortly after the taking pictures, Musk endorsed Trump, citing his response to the assault.
In his remarks, he referred to that second.
Musk mentioned, “The true take a look at of somebody’s character is how they behave below hearth. And we had one president who couldn’t climb a flight of stairs, and one other who was fist bumping after getting shot. ‘Battle, struggle, struggle.’ Blood coming down the face.”
He added, “America is the house of the courageous, and there’s no more true take a look at than braveness below hearth.”
Musk has been utilizing his social media platform, X, to advertise Trump and to warn of electing Kamala Harris, typically in dire phrases.
Musk additionally has trafficked in conspiracy theories and falsehoods. Within the aftermath of the assassination try, he accused mainstream media shops of “propaganda” by downplaying the taking pictures, reposting a roundup of preliminary headlines that reported on an incident on the rally however didn’t instantly establish the shootings as an assassination try. Musk failed to say that shops repeatedly up to date their headlines as new info was confirmed.
On the rally, Musk mentioned, “That is no unusual election. The opposite aspect needs to remove your freedom of speech. They need to take away your proper to bear arms. They need to take away your proper to vote.”
Harris has famous that she is a gun proprietor and that Trump’s declare that she need to take folks’s firearms away is “steady mendacity.” She does help a ban on assault weapons, which she known as a weapon of battle.
Musk additionally has tried to solid himself as a champion of free speech. However he has restricted the accounts of customers on X, together with journalists, and he has sued entities like Media Issues for America over items they revealed about advertisements on Z showing subsequent to pro-Nazi content material. Musk’s X additionally has sued some advertisers for declining to position spots on X after he endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy concept.
On the rally, Musk criticized California lawmakers for passing a legislation that bans native governments from imposing voter ID necessities. “I nonetheless can’t imagine that’s actual,” Musk mentioned.
“You need to have free speech with the intention to have democracy,” Musk mentioned. “That’s why it’s the First Modification, and the Second Modification is there to make sure that now we have the First Modification.”
He added, “Donald Trump should win to protect the Structure. He should win to protect democracy in America.”
Musk’s remarks have been in distinction to an look by Liz Cheney at a rally with Harris earlier this week. Cheney, the conservative former congresswoman, blasted Trump for attempting to overturn the election in 2020 and for inciting a mob to assault the Capitol in 2020. Practically two years later, in a Trump Social publish calling for throwing out the 2020 outcomes, Trump known as for “the termination of all guidelines, laws, and articles, even these discovered within the Structure.”
Trump began his rally by telling the group, “As I used to be saying,” a reference to how his July occasion was instantly shut down. He paid tribute to Corey Comperatore, who was killed on that day, and to those that have been injured. He additionally held a second of silence at 6:11 p.m. ET, the precise time of the taking pictures.
Fox Information carried the rally. CNN and MSNBC carried the early portion of the rally, then lower away and went again to Musk’s remarks.
