Clinton on Saturday condemned the attack on Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was beat with a hammer inside the couple’s San Francisco home early Friday morning. His attacker David DePape reportedly has a history of believing right-wing conspiracies including QAnon.
“The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories. It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result. As citizens, we must hold them accountable for their words and the actions that follow,” Clinton tweeted on Saturday in response to the attack.
Musk then responded to Clinton with a conspiracy theory from an article in the Santa Monica Observer, which in 2016 falsely reported Clinton had died and been replaced by a body double. The headline read: “The Awful Truth: Paul Pelosi Was on Drugs And In a Dispute With a Male Prostitute Friday Morning.”
“There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye,” he tweeted to the Democratic 2016 presidential nominee.
The conspiracy theory has not been backed up by any facts and has been widely dismissed. Musk has since deleted the tweet, but did not issue any statement addressing the misinformation.
He faced rebuke over the tweet on Sunday nonetheless.
“Elon Musk is not a trained journalist. This is dangerously irresponsible. The newspaper he’s quoting wrote in 2016 that Hillary Clinton had died on the campaign trail & was using a body double. This is gross, @elonmusk,” tweeted Isa Watson, founder and CEO of Squad. “With great power comes great responsibility. Do better.”
“Elon Musk says Twitter won’t be a “free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences.” So @elonmusk, what are the consequences for you tweeting garbage from a source that claims Hillary Clinton died in 2016?” tweeted the organization Citizens for Ethics.
Political commentator Molly Jong-Fast tweeted: “This exchange between @HillaryClinton and @elonmusk should kill any remaining confidence advertisers had in the platform.” She later added: “Elon musk deleted the Santa Monica observer tweet Instead of doubling down on it but it’s not like he apologized or tried to correct the record.”
The Santa Monica Observer thanked Musk for sharing the article in a tweet Sunday afternoon. It also defended the article against misinformation allegations as being “sourced” and “posted as opinion.”
“Thanks @elonmusk for buying twitter. And thanks for retweeting our story,” the newspaper’s tweet reads.
Musk’s Twitter Takeover Shrouded in Controversy
The controversy is the latest to strike Musk amid his Twitter purchase, which has faced skepticism from critics who have raised concerns that his commitment to free expression would equate to allowing misinformation and hate speech to thrive on the platform.
Musk has said Twitter “cannot become a free-for-all hellscape,” though that has done little to quell these concerns, which were renewed by his Pelosi tweet. He said Friday that no changes to the platform’s content moderation system have been implemented yet.
After purchasing the company, he quickly fired some of its top executives and employees, including CEO Parag Agrawal and Chief Legal Counsel Vijaya Gadde, who made the call in January 2021 to permanently suspend former President Donald Trump’s account for inciting violence.
Some high-profile celebrities, including Shonda Rhimes, have ditched Twitter in light of his takeover.
Newsweek reached out to Musk’s Tesla for comment.
Update 10/30/2022 5:37 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
