Vandalizing Teslas — and laughing along with those who do — seems an odd choice for people who claim to be concerned about the environment above all else.
Welcome back to Forgotten Fact Checks. This week, we look at Democrats’ heartless celebration of the attacks against Tesla and cover more media misses.
Elon Musk Derangement Syndrome Hits a Fever Pitch
Democratic lawmakers and pundits are rooting for the downfall of an American company just because it is owned by Elon Musk.
Failed Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz said that he checks Tesla’s stock daily to give himself “a little boost during the day,” as the stock has been falling in recent weeks. (He has since tried to pass his comments off as a joke.)
In fact, Representative Jasmine Crockett (D., Texas) went so far as to say that all she wants for her birthday is to see Musk “taken down,” — non-violently, she clarified, after receiving backlash. This, from a member of the same party that called on Republicans to tone down their rhetoric after Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt last summer.
Meanwhile, several late night hosts callously joked about domestic terrorism against Tesla properties. Three suspects are facing federal charges after they attacked Tesla properties including Tesla vehicles, charging stations, and dealerships around the country with Molotov cocktails.
Meanwhile, two vehicles at a Tesla service center in Las Vegas were set on fire last week, with three other vehicles damaged in the blaze.
“This level of violence is insane and deeply wrong. Tesla just makes electric cars and has done nothing to deserve these evil attacks,” Musk said in response.
Attorney General Pam Bondi called the attacks “nothing short of domestic terrorism.”
But late night hosts found more levity in the situation.
“Please don’t vandalize. Don’t ever vandalize Tesla vehicles,” Jimmy Kimmel told his audience in a sarcastic tone.
He also told his audience that Tesla’s stock was way down, “almost disastrously so,” leading to cheers from viewers.
Meanwhile, the Daily Show’s audience cheered as the show played news reports about the vandalism against Tesla.
“Wow. You guys like petty acts of domestic terrorism,” Comedy Central co-host Jordan Klepper told the crowd. “Wow. Okay, let me just say: nobody should be breaking the law and blowing up Teslas. Especially because if you just wait a few minutes, they’ll probably do it by themselves.”
One Tesla owner in upstate New York had his car vandalized with “this car supports Nazis” written on his vehicle.
“Regular people like myself are getting caught up in this,” Tesla owner Shawn Freed told Fox News. “It’s sad to me that they are attacking Tesla, the company, because they disagree with the opinions of an individual.”
A Jewish Cybertruck owner’s car was also defaced with a swastika by an anti-Elon Musk protester in Brooklyn.
And pundits have only added fuel to the fire.
Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson published a Substack post headlined, “Kill Tesla, Save the Country.”
“Tesla is no longer just a car company; it’s a bank for fascists, a goose-stepping hedge fund bankrolling the political fever dreams of Elon Musk and his DOGE dreams of controlling the ruins of the American government as he becomes Earth’s first trillionaire and then the Emperor of Mars,” he wrote.
Headline Fail of the Week
“Leak Reveals Trump’s Full Bonkers Plan for the Kennedy Center,” the Daily Beast reports.
The “Bonkers” plan?
“President Donald Trump wants to introduce non-woke musicals like ‘Cats,’ honor dead stars from sports to business and even renovate the Kennedy Center, according to a leaked board meeting recording.”
Renovate the Kennedy Center? The horror!
Media Misses
• White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has earned her third fact check from Politifact in just two months in office. That means she has now surpassed the total number of fact checks former Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki received from the site in her 16 months in the position. The latest fact check was on Leavitt’s claim that “tariffs are a tax cut for the American people,” which the site rated as “false.”
• American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten is apparently suddenly concerned about the effects of Covid school closures on children – school closures that she fought for. Arguing against the shuttering of the Department of Education last week, Weingarten said: “And so, what I don’t want is, I don’t want it so shut down in so many ways that kids are really hurt. And then somebody says, ‘Oops, we didn’t mean to do that.’ Kids go through kindergarten once,” Weingarten added. “We already saw during Covid the longstanding problems that happened when schools were shut down too long. We got to make sure we get this right for kids.”
Yet Weingarten previously blasted the Trump administration’s guidelines for reopening schools by fall 2020 as “reckless,” “callous” and “cruel.”
• CBS host Gayle King says DEI, to her, means “definitely earned it,” after the Department of Defense removed several pages on minority servicemen – though several of those pages were later reinstated. “It’s insulting to include that in DEI,” King said. “DEI to me means ‘definitely earned it.’ You know, people don’t understand exactly, I think, what DEI is. It’s really heartbreaking to see what’s happening here.”