President Joe Biden called for tesla SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, now a Republican mega-donor and Trump campaign surrogate, on Saturday denounced hypocrisy on immigration, making Musk the world’s richest man. He said that he began his long career in the United States as an “undocumented worker” before becoming an “undocumented worker.”
The president made the remarks Saturday at a Democratic campaign event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Biden labeled Musk a new wealthy “ally” of former President Donald Trump, referring to Musk and saying, “The richest man in the world was an illegal worker here when he was here.” It turned out that it was.”
Biden added, “When he came on a student visa, he was supposed to be in school. He wasn’t in school. He was breaking the law. He said all these ‘illegals’ They say they are coming to us,” he added.
He also criticized President Trump and the Republican Party for not signing legislation to resolve the “border issue.” He added: “There are fewer people illegally crossing or crossing the border now than at any time since the third year of his presidency.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Biden’s remarks.
Mr. Musk recently concluded a series of “town hall” events in the same battleground state of Pennsylvania, trying to persuade voters to support Mr. Trump and his policies. Musk also galvanized his local fan base by giving away $1 million in lottery-style prizes to registered voters in battleground states who signed petitions distributed by Trump’s pro-Trump group America PAC.
According to analysis by According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, President Trump’s new immigration policy proposals include the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, abolishing birthright citizenship, and revoking and deporting international students who are pro-Palestinian protesters. etc. are included.
Biden commented on Musk, his alliance with Trump and hypocrisy on immigration. Washington Post coverage It quotes correspondence; legal records and multiple people who helped Mr. Musk obtain a work visa in 1996 after he was already working without one.
Mr. Musk arrived in the United States in the mid-’90s with the stated intention of attending graduate school at Stanford University. He didn’t enroll in the program he said he had been accepted into, and instead started building a venture-backed startup called Zip2 with his brother.
The Washington Post wrote that investors in Musk’s first company were concerned that “the founder would be deported” and gave him a deadline to obtain a work visa.
Zip2 was sold at approx. $300 million in 1999, which helped Elon Musk later become an early investor and chairman of Tesla and launch a capital-intensive aerospace venture, SpaceX, now a major US defense contractor. was completed.
These businesses have allowed Musk to become, on paper, the richest person in the world. According to Forbes, the Tesla CEO’s net worth is approximately $274 billion today.
In late 2022, Musk used his vast wealth to buy the social network Twitter for $44 billion.
Since rebranding X, Musk has repeatedly claimed in posts viewed by his vast online fanbase that “open borders” and illegal immigration are somehow harming the United States. .
He also shared false claims that non-citizens are systematically voting in U.S. elections. Conspiracy theories advocated by conservative groups The move is to lay the legal groundwork for Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris to challenge the election results if she wins the presidential election.
In the United States, it is already a federal crime for noncitizens to register or vote in federal elections, and each state’s laws make it a crime as well.
According to a study compiled by the Brennan Center for Justice,extensive research It turns out that fraud is extremely rare, voter impersonation is virtually non-existent, and many instances of alleged fraud are actually mistakes by voters or administrators. the same applies mail-in votingThey are safe and essential to holding a safe election amid the coronavirus pandemic. ”
— CNBC’s Rebecca Picciotto contributed to this report.
