Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) slapped back at Attorney General Pam Bondi’s warning to exercise caution around Elon Musk. (Watch the video below.)
Crockett appeared on MSNBC Sunday and was immediately shown Bondi threatening her earlier in the day. She falsely suggested Crockett called for physical attacks on Musk when she was actually promoting an organized nonviolent protest against the Tesla owner, who became President Donald Trump’s right-hand man in dismantling the government amid fierce objection by Democrats.
“She is an elected official and so she needs to tread very carefully because nothing will happen to Elon Musk,” Bondi told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo.
Asked to comment, Crockett defended her language and said the “Tesla Takedown” was a “nonviolent protest” and that she made it clear during the meeting she made those remarks. “It’s ridiculous even to have to say something like that,” she said.
The House member appeared to zero in on MAGA viewers who might skew her remarks.
“Just in case the slow people listening decide to clip this up later, I just want to say that I have never promoted violence whatsoever,” she said. “Yet I’ve also never made excuses for those violent actors, such as the ones on Jan. 6. 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 Jan. 6.”
In a move that even surprised some allies, Trump pardoned some of the more violent offenders in the 2021 insurrection when he returned to office in January.
Republicans tried to cast Crockett’s “All I want to see happen on my birthday is for Elon to be taken down” as a call for harming the DOGE leader amid incidents of vandalism at Tesla sites. (Bondi accused some suspects of domestic terrorism.)
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The “Tesla Takedown” movement aims to to encourage Tesla owners to part with their vehicles and for shareholders to dump their stock to protest Musk’s role in haphazardly slashing jobs. It is organizing hundreds of demonstrations at Tesla dealerships on March 29. That coincides with Crockett’s birthday.
“Tesla is tanking right now and I’m OK with that,” Crockett told MSNBC host Alex Witt.