The pro-China outlet Bloomberg News attempted to defame Twitter CEO Elon Musk by portraying him as a threat to the United States.
“Mister President, do you think Elon Musk is a threat to U.S. national security?” Bloomberg White House reporter Jenny Leonard asked President Joe Biden during a Nov. 9 press conference at the White House.
But she didn’t stop there, also pressing Biden on whether the president should use government power to “investigate” Musk’s lawful purchase of Twitter. Musk is a self-described “free-speech absolutist” who has taken flack for tweeting in March that “[f]ree speech is essential to a functioning democracy.”
But Leonard framed Musk’s Twitter deal as a shady partnership with “foreign governments, which include the Saudis.”
MRC Free Speech America President Dan Schneider slammed the liberal media for ignoring the obvious question: What about TikTok?
“The Bloomberg reporter asked the right question but to the wrong person,” Schneider said. “The federal government has already identified TikTok, ByteDance and other Chinese Communist Party-controlled platforms as direct and immediate threats to our national security.”
Schneider continued: “The fact that this Bloomberg reporter attacks a businessman who supports free speech reveals her true motivation. You’d think that American reporters would care more about free speech and U.S. national security than she does.”
Perhaps the reason for this is that Bloomberg News itself has carried water for the CCP, even going as far as to kill an investigation into the wealth of party elites in 2020.
The reason? Bloomberg was reportedly “fearful of repercussions by the Chinese government.”
But not all journalists were convinced of Musk’s guilt. Journalist Matt Taibbi pointed out the inherent absurdity of the Bloomberg reporter’s question. “Where’s the alleged wrongdoing justifying this?” he tweeted. “It’s bad enough that we investigate people without cause now, but having the President label people threats in public? And people are okay with this?”
Where’s the alleged wrongdoing justifying this? It’s bad enough that we investigate people without cause now, but having the President label people threats in public? And people are okay with this? https://t.co/jZtP3OCSBY
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) November 10, 2022
Biden chuckled in response to Leonard’s question, pausing multiple times throughout his answer. “I think that Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries, uh, is worthy of being looked at.” But in typical Biden fashion, he followed his endorsement for a government investigation into Musk’s company with an absurd attempt to appear neutral.
“Whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate — I’m not suggesting that. I’m suggesting that it’s worth being looked at.”
Leonard herself was apparently fine with Biden’s suggestion that Musk was a security threat, tweeting later: “what I really want to know is what the president decided not to say about @elonmusk.”
what I really want to know is what the president decided not to say about @elonmusk. https://t.co/zfZU7UcjfO
— Jenny Leonard (@jendeben) November 9, 2022
The liberal media have repeatedly alleged connections between Musk and the Saudis, laying the groundwork for Leonard’s pointed question. Axios, Newsweek, CNN Business — and yes — even Bloomberg News all gave sensational coverage to reputed ties between Musk and the Saudi royal family.
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