Attorney General Pam Bondi demanded that Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett apologize to Tesla shareholders for saying she wants Trump ally and CEO Elon Musk to be “taken down.”
“She needs to unequivocally denounce the violence,” Bondi told Fox News host Sean Hannity during an interview Monday night. “She must apologize immediately, not only to all Texans, but to our country, to the American shareholders of Tesla, because she is promoting violence.”
Crockett made the statement on a live stream organized by #TeslaTakedown, urging viewers to “join a nonviolent protest” online against Tesla.
“I am truly here for very selfish reasons, starting with on March 29th, it’s my birthday, and all I want to see happen on my birthday is for Elon to be taken down,” Crockett said
“Obviously, everything that I am promoting is nonviolent,” she added, clarifying her promotion of peaceful activism.
Although Bondi previously addressed the comments made by Crockett, including her clarification that she was advocating for nonviolent protest, during a Sunday interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, the attorney general did not appear so convinced.
“Now you have this Congresswoman, Crockett, who is calling for attacks on Elon Musk on her birthday, ‘let’s take him out on my birthday,’ she says. Yet she turns and says, ‘I’m not calling for violence?’ Well, she is an elected public official, and so she needs to tread very carefully, because nothing will happen to Elon Musk,” Bondi said.
Tesla dealerships and individual vehicle owners are currently facing threats of tampering and destruction following repeated acts of vandalism in which the electric vehicles are spray-painted, or in some cases, set on fire in larger attacks.
Other Republican legislators, such as Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, have also denounced Crockett’s comments.
“A Member of Congress is organizing political violence and terrorism,” Greene wrote to X.
However, Crockett responded by pointing out that Trump administration officials and supporters seemed to accept selective political violence by supporting those who attended the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021.
“I have never promoted violence whatsoever, yet I’ve also never made [an] excuse for those violent actors such as the ones on January 6,” Crockett told MSNBC on Sunday.
“So Pam Bondi, if you have an issue with terrorism, maybe you should talk to your boss about locking back up those guys that he let out that participated in January 6,” Crockett said.
Originally published by Latin Times.
