At a White House Press conference, President Joe Biden appeared to welcome a federal investigation into Elon Musk’s alleged “dealings” with foreign governments. He said that after he was asked if he thought the new Twitter owner posed a threat to national security.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has had a stake in Twitter since 2011 with 4% of the shares but Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter with the aim of making Twitter more of a free speech platform has caused critics to look at the company more critically.
“Do you think Elon Musk is a threat to US national security?” Bloomberg reporter Jenny Leonard asked the president during the press conference. “And should the US – and with the tools you have – investigate his joint acquisition of Twitter with foreign governments, which include the Saudis?”
Biden responded: “I think that Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at. Whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate, I’m not suggesting that. I’m suggesting that it’s worth being looked at.”
He said, “There’s a lot of ways,” when asked how those dealings would be investigated.
Biden dismissed questions into his own family’s questionable overseas business dealings, saying, the “American public wants to move on,” adding that “it’s almost comedy.”
On October 24, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Musk’s acquisition of Twitter was not a national-security issue.
“Those reportings are not true. So we’ll leave that there. The national security review, that is not true,” Jean-Pierre said.
