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Attorney General Pam Bondi called on Texas congresswoman Jasmine Crockett to apologize for recent comments calling for Elon Musk to be “taken down,” claiming the comments are driving violence and “insurrection.”
“She needs to unequivocally denounce the violence,” Bondi said during an interview Monday night on Fox News’s Hannity. “She must apologize immediately, not only to all Texans, but to our country, to the American shareholders of Tesla, because she is promoting violence.”
The comments came as Teslas and facilities tied to the EV brand have faced violence and threats, including in Texas.
The Independent has contacted Rep. Crockett’s office for comment.
Last week, Crockett, a Democrat, said she hoped to see Musk “taken down” as part of a protest push calling itself the Tesla Takedown Movement, though said moments later she meant that figuratively and asserted that “everything that I am promoting is non-violent.”
Nonetheless, the comments have roiled the MAGA right.
Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene accused Crockett of “organizing political violence and terrorism,” while Bondi has said elsewhere that Crockett must “tread carefully,” given the administration’s larger effort to crack down on those making violent threats against Musk and Tesla.
Crockett has claimed it is the Trump administration that is providing political cover for insurrectionists, rather than critics of Tesla and Musk.
“I have never promoted violence whatsoever, yet I’ve also never made [an] excuse for those violent actors such as the ones on January 6,” she told MSNBC last week, referring to President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardons for insurrectionists charged with crimes during Capitol riots.
Tesla vehicles, dealerships, and charging stations have persistently been targets of protests and attacks since Donald Trump took office and made Musk a key partner overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative that has led to mass layoffs, budget cuts, and attempts to shutter multiple federal agencies.
Anonymous individuals have also created a website purporting to show the locations of Tesla facilities and individuals tied to DOGE. The cursor on the website is a Molotov cocktail.
Bondi announced last week that the Justice Department is bringing “severe” charges against three individuals accused of targeting Teslas with arson attacks, following the White House’s vow to treat such incidents as domestic terrorism.
Federal officials have also launched a terrorism taskforce to investigate the Tesla attacks.
Trump has taken things a step further, suggesting that those who target Teslas could be sent, in what would amount to an unprecedented and potentially illegal move, to a notorious Salvadoran prison at the center of the ongoing Venezuelan deportation flights lawsuit.
