Lancaster, Oct 27: Tech mogul Elon Musk, speaking at a town hall Saturday night in Pennsylvania to support Republican Donald Trump, played down the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and exhorted supporters to cast votes early in the presidential swing state while describing mail ballots as a “recipe for fraud.”
The freewheeling session touched on a dizzying range of topics, from space exploration to immigration. The town hall was part of Musk’s efforts through his super PAC to help boost Trump in swing states ahead of the November 5 presidential election against Democrat Kamala Harris.
Musk, whom Trump has vowed to give a role in his administration if he wins next month, spent nearly two hours taking questions from town hall participants.
While most were laudatory and covered a variety of topics, one was particularly 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 US considering his role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection.
While calling it a fair question, Musk also said that the January 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 cheered by the crowd. (AP)
