Elon Musk says the real threat to democracy is the people who accuse Trump of endangering it

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — Tech mogul Elon Musk, talking at a city corridor Saturday evening in Pennsylvania to assist Republican Donald Trump, performed down the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and exhorted supporters to forged votes early in the presidential swing state whereas describing mail ballots as a “recipe for fraud.”

The freewheeling session inside a ballroom at a resort in downtown Lancaster touched on a dizzying vary of subjects, from area exploration and the Tesla cybertruck to immigration and the efficacy of psychiatric medication. The city corridor was half of Musk’s efforts by his tremendous PAC to assist increase Trump in swing states forward of the Nov. 5 presidential election towards Democrat Kamala Harris.

Musk, whom Trump has vowed to give a task in his administration if he wins subsequent month, spent practically two hours taking questions from city corridor individuals. Whereas most had been laudatory and lined a range of subjects, one was significantly pointed: A person needed to know what Musk would say to issues from voters that Trump’s election may lead to democracy backsliding in the U.S. contemplating his function in the Jan. 6, 2021, revolt.

Whereas calling it a good query, Musk additionally mentioned that the Jan. 6 assault by Trump’s supporters has been known as “some kind of violent revolt, which is merely not the case” — a response that drew applause from the crowd. Greater than 100 legislation enforcement personnel had been injured in the assault, 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 cease the certification of votes.

Musk additionally claimed that people “who say Trump is a threat to democracy are themselves a threat to democracy,” a remark that was additionally cheered by the crowd of a number of hundred people packed tightly into the ballroom. Many extra watched the occasion on X, the social media platform Musk bought two years in the past.

Trump, he mentioned, “did truly inform people to not be violent.” Whereas Trump did inform the crowd on Jan. 6 to protest “peacefully and patriotically,” he additionally encouraged them to “fight like hell” to cease Democrat Joe Biden from turning into the president.

Musk, the world’s richest man, has committed more than $70 million to increase Trump in the election and, at occasions on behalf of his tremendous PAC, has inspired supporters to embrace voting early. Nonetheless, echoing some of Trump’s misgivings about the methodology, Musk raised his personal doubts about the course of. He mentioned that, in the future, mail ballots shouldn’t be accepted, calling them a wierd anomaly that bought popularized throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and elevating the prospect of fraud.