On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Beat,” host Ari Melber argued that President Donald Trump stating that he would classify violence against Teslas or Tesla dealerships as domestic terrorism is him labeling “people who protest Tesla” domestic terrorists and saying, “We would not expect American judges to allow any sort of treatment of protesters as domestic terrorists because they go to a Tesla” dealership.
Melber said, “[W]e see Trump trying to bend the government to help Musk, and it goes well beyond what you see just in these kind of sort of embarrassing efforts to hawk cars. If they’re great cars, why do you need the government involved in selling them in that manner? But a Trump prosecutor also made a possibly illegal vow to investigate members of Congress who criticize Elon Musk. That’s, again, helpful to Musk, coming from the Trump administration.”
He continued, “And then Trump recently said he agrees with a suggestion that people who protest Tesla are actually, ‘domestic terrorists’ ‘harming a great American company.’ We would not expect American judges to allow any sort of treatment of protesters as domestic terrorists because they go to a Tesla, as you see here.” He then showed footage of some protests at Tesla dealerships.
The Reuters article Melber showed on the screen while discussing Trump’s remarks on domestic terrorism was headlined, “Trump says violence against Tesla is domestic terrorism” and clearly noted that the domestic terrorism remarks were referring to violence.
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