White House slams Elon Musk for 'unacceptable' embrace of antisemitic tweet

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The White House on Friday sharply denounced tech billionaire Elon Musk’s "unacceptable" embrace of an antisemitic X post that has drawn widespread condemnation.

"It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind the most fatal act of Antisemitism in American history at any time, let alone one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust," spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement, referring to the Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian group Hamas that killed over 1,000 Israelis.

"We condemn this abhorrent promotion of Antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans. We all have a responsibility to bring people together against hate, and an obligation to speak out against anyone who attacks the dignity of their fellow Americans and compromises the safety of our communities," he added.

The comments come after Musk posted that he supported a core tenet of an antisemitic conspiracy theory that has motivated past hate crimes against Jewish people, including the 2018 attack on a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania synagogue in which 11 worshippers were killed.

The X post Musk responded to claimed Jewish communities "have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them." It further accused Jewish people of supporting "hordes of minorities" being relocated into Western societies.

The X user alleged that western Jewish populations are “coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don't exactly like them too much.”

"You have said the actual truth," Musk, who is the world's richest person, responded Wednesday.

He later tried to backtrack, saying his comment was solely in reference to the Anti-Defamation League, a group Musk has repeatedly clashed with, and tried to blame for advertisers fleeing X since he bought it last year, then called Twitter, and worth an estimated twice as much.