- Rep. Ro Khanna in an interview with The New York Times Magazine praised Elon Musk's entrepreneurial skills.
- "The fact is, he thought about electric vehicles and made that work," Khanna told the magazine.
Rep. Ro Khanna in a recent interview praised Tesla CEO and X chairman Elon Musk's entrepreneurial skills, but the congressman also said he "can't defend" some of the investor's tweets.
The comments were made during a conversation with The New York Times Magazine, where the progressive lawmaker from the San Francisco Bay Area spoke candidly about Musk, who since taking over Twitter (now X) has become a polarizing figure in the public sphere.
"I still keep in touch with Elon, so here's what I say: As an entrepreneur and innovator, he is unparalleled in genius," Khanna told journalist David Marchese. "The fact is, he thought about electric vehicles and made that work. He figured out how to get rocket launches to be far cheaper. He figured out how to get Starlink into places of conflict."
"If you spend 15 minutes talking to him, you'll realize his brilliance," the congressman added.
Khanna then spoke about how he'd like to see Musk "pay more attention to issues of the role of the government that enabled him" and wanted Tesla have a more neutral stance toward unionization.
"He can be schizophrenic, as a lot of entrepreneurs are," Khanna told Marchese. "I had an hourlong conversation with him, with Mike Gallagher, chairman of the China committee, on AI, and he was incredibly thoughtful."
But Khanna seemingly wasn't onboard with some of Musk's online behavior, which has included the posting of various controversial tweets and memes.
"Then you see his tweet that's like a seventh grader. It's a lot that you can't defend," the Californian added.
Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter in October 2022 and the social network began its rebranding as X in July 2023.