Harris says Biden made mistake not inviting Musk to electric vehicle summit

Former Vice President Kamala Harris said her onetime boss, former President Joe Biden, made a “big mistake” by not inviting Tesla CEO Elon Musk to a 2021 White House event on electric vehicles.

In August 2021, Biden hosted an EV event at the White House with executives from General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis, but Musk was not invited even though Tesla is the country’s leading EV manufacturer.

“I wrote in the book that I thought it was a big mistake not to invite Elon Musk when we had a big EV event,” Harris told Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell at the news organization’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, referencing Biden’s memoir “107 Days” in which he initially ran for re-election despite his health problems.

“I mean, here he is, the largest American manufacturer with extraordinary innovation in this space,” Harris said of Musk, who is also CEO of SpaceX.

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Musk’s snub was seen as an effort to support the United Auto Workers and organized labor in general, since Tesla factories are not unionized. Harris wrote in her book that she believed Biden was “sending a message about Musk’s anti-union stance” but didn’t think it “made sense” to exclude him as the top player in the field.

Then-White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the event included “the three largest employers of the United Auto Workers” and emphasized that Tesla employees were not unionized.

Asked whether Musk’s snub was punishment for his workers not unionizing, Psaki told reporters: “I’ll let you draw your own conclusion.”

The Biden administration has defended inviting only automakers, calling them key partners in the president’s effort to recruit union business.

Elon Musk’s snub was widely seen as an effort to support the United Auto Workers union and organized labor in general. (REUTERS/Nathan Howard)

Harris said presidents should “put political allegiances aside” when it comes to recognizing technological innovations.

“So I thought it was a mistake, and I don’t know Elon Musk, but I have to assume it was something that affected him a lot and influenced his perspective,” he said.

Musk appeared offended after not being invited to the event and took multiple punches at Biden.

“Yes, it seems odd that Tesla wasn’t invited,” Musk wrote on social media at the time.

A month later, he said the Biden administration was “controlled by the unions” and “not the friendliest administration.”

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Former President Joe Biden hosted an EV event at the White House in 2021 with the participation of General Motors, Ford and Stellantis executives, but Elon Musk was not invited. (AP)

Management officials apologized after Musk learned Tesla would not be invited, according to The Wall Street Journal. Biden’s aides later tried to defuse the situation, but tensions remained.

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Harris’ comments on Tuesday echoed a passage from her new book, in which she writes that the Biden administration’s move not to include Tesla was a mistake and alienated Musk, who later became one of current President Donald Trump’s biggest financial backers.

“Musk has never forgiven this,” he wrote.

Musk later supported Trump in the 2024 election and contributed nearly $300 million to Republican campaign efforts.