Ro Khanna challenges Elon Musk to televised debate after DOGE battle

Potential 2028 presidential candidate Rep. Ro Khanna challenged newly minted trillionaire Elon Musk in a televised debate over the impact of cuts made to the Government Department of Productivity initiative during Musk’s term, following an ugly social media spat between the Silicon Valley congressman and the tech giant.

“I challenge him to a debate… do it on CNN, do it on CNBC, do it at a university, he can choose the setting and let’s discuss what happened with DOGE, let’s discuss why I’m in favor of a wealth tax,” Khanna said in an interview with CNBC on Monday. he said. “If he believes in freedom of speech and freedom of expression on these issues, we can exchange ideas.”

The challenge came in response to an intense exchange earlier Monday on Musk-owned social media platform X, in which the trillionaire said Khanna should be sued or even jailed. The California congressman had previously said Musk should respond to potential deaths caused by DOGE shutting down the US Agency for International Development, prompting Musk’s anger.

If that goal comes to fruition, the world’s richest man will face off against a rising candidate for the White House in 2028, at a time when the Democratic Party is imposing new taxes on the rich and railing against billionaires.

“It’s not cool when the richest person in the world with the biggest platform on X go says you should be in jail and he’s going to sue you and then I’m a liar,” Khanna said in the interview. “I’m getting along with the richest person in the world, but I hope he has a real argument about this.”

Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment through a spokesman.

The online fight between Khanna and Musk began early Monday, when Musk objected to Khanna citing a recently published study. lancet He claimed that cuts to USAID could cause the deaths of more than 4.5 million children. Musk-led DOGE effectively shut down USAID, which wreaked havoc on Washington last year in an effort to shrink the federal government and root out alleged inefficiencies.

Open a podcast On Saturday, Khanna said Musk “must answer for the 4.5 million children worldwide he probably condemned to death by disbanding USAID.”

Musk, answers “It’s time to sue this liar,” he said in a New York Post article about Khanna’s comments.

“The standard implemented by DOGE was very simple and easy: Provide contact information of people receiving assistance so we can verify it is not fraud,” Musk said in a later post. “The truth is that money was being sent to corrupt politicians under the guise of aid! Stock traders like Liars and Robber Ro should be in jail!!”

Musk published a series of posts attacking Khanna.

This controversy is not the first time Khanna has clashed with his one-time allies in Silicon Valley. Some of his former supporters threatened to abandon him earlier this year after he adopted a wealth tax in California.

In an interview with CNBC on Monday, Khanna said Musk supported him at times: praise a book he wrote and his opposition to Twitter censoring a story about former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.

Khanna said he was “lost” over Musk’s reference to the Lancet study.

But Khanna, who made a successful bid to have the Epstein files published, said he did not plan to stop cracking down on the rich, despite representing one of the wealthiest regions in the country.

“The most important moral test for the Democratic Party right now is: Will you effectively combat the Trump administration and will you combat the oligarchy?” he said. “And I have taken on these fights, with my work on the Epstein files and now calling out Musk.”

—Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.