[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 55 (Wednesday, March 26, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1853-S1854]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Elon Musk

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I have spoken before about my constituent, 
my fellow Texan, Elon Musk here on the floor and recounted the fact 
that it was really, maybe, probably--at least 15 years ago, maybe a 
little longer, when he came to my office here in Washington, DC, and 
said he had a new company called SpaceX, and he wanted to compete for 
the business of NASA and commercial space.
  And as it turned out, Mr. Musk had to sue the U.S. Government just 
for the privilege of competing with the United Space Alliance, I 
believe it is called, the existing entity that had an exclusive 
contract on space flight with the U.S. Government.
  I read recently that now SpaceX carries about 90 percent of the 
payloads in the world into space. It is a remarkable testament to not 
only his incredible innovation but resilience and persistence to build 
such a successful company.
  And that is not the only one he has built. Tesla is headquartered in 
Texas. I have been out to the Gigafactory right outside of Austin, TX, 
and he is building cars that are very popular and employing an awful 
lot of Texans--which I am all in favor of--and they continue to grow 
and hire more of my constituents.
  Mr. Musk has done something here in Washington, DC, in the last 
couple of months which is heresy; it is heresy. He has actually said 
the Federal Government spends too much, and he said a lot of what the 
Federal Government spends is waste and fraud and abuse. And much of it, 
as we have seen, are things that most of us had no real awareness of. 
But as he has targeted some of the most egregious examples of waste and 
abuse of the taxpayer dollar, I think there are many people across the 
country--certainly where I come from--who have applauded that effort. 
They feel like this has been long coming and long overdue.
  One of the major challenges we face here in Washington, DC, is that 
spending money is very popular, and, of course, people who spend 
money--even though it is not theirs, it is the taxpayers' dollars--can 
go home and say: Guess what I did for you. And most of it involves 
spending. But we are now having to come to grips with the fact that we 
are $36.4 trillion in debt, and we have kicked the can down the road so 
long that we have run out of road.
  And, indeed, many of us have talked over the years about the fact 
that this is immoral. We basically are writing checks that our children 
and grandchildren will have to cash. Somebody is going to have to pay 
that money back.
  And now we are spending more money on interest on the national debt 
than we are to defend the Nation, which is a very dangerous set of 
circumstances, given the situation we find ourselves in, which is the 
most dangerous time since World War II.
  Now, it is no secret that Elon Musk is perhaps the richest man in the 
world. I don't begrudge him that. It looks like he has done some 
amazing things and continues to do so. I know that with that sort of 
money, he doesn't have to be up here volunteering to do some of the 
work that needs to be done in terms of identifying the waste and abuse. 
He could go relax on an island somewhere. He could buy an island. He 
could do whatever he wants and he wouldn't have to lift a finger to 
help anybody else and he could just live a life of luxury and leisure 
for the rest of his existence, but I don't believe he is wired that 
way. I am grateful for that because, instead, he is volunteering his 
time to serve not only the President of the United States but the 
American people.
  You don't have to agree with everything that Mr. Musk recommends to 
recognize that this is an incredible public service, and this is long 
overdue, identifying all of the waste and abuse and egregious 
expenditures of taxpayer dollars.
  In fact, I am a little shocked that our Democratic colleagues don't 
join us in this effort. I happen to be a member of what we call the 
DOGE Caucus, the Department of Government Efficiency. We are making 
recommendations to DOGE to look at different departments of the 
government and say: Can you find savings here? Can you find 
expenditures that don't make any sense?
  I am kind of shocked our Democratic colleagues refuse to join us in 
that. It seems like, in a normal world, they would be concerned about 
this too. Instead, they just say: The status quo is just fine. We don't 
need to change a thing--$36.4 trillion and counting.
  And, in fact, they seem to be in denial of the fact that President 
Trump and Republican majorities in both Houses were elected on November 
5. Hopefully, that won't continue indefinitely.
  But what I want to mention is some of the violence and the acts of 
vandalism that have occurred around the country that have been focused 
primarily on Tesla owners.
  Now, by the way, most of these Teslas aren't owned by Elon Musk 
anymore. They have been sold to private citizens, and yet they have 
been the target of a lot of the vandalism and violence that we have 
seen around the country.
  Just 2 days ago, police officers found what they called multiple 
incendiary devices at a local Tesla dealership in North Austin, where I 
live. Now, this prompted a full bomb squad to respond, and an 
investigation is still underway. Thankfully, there were no injuries, 
but it is ridiculous that the state of our public discourse has reached 
this point.
  The North Austin Tesla dealership bomb threat, unfortunately, is not 
the first of its kind. It comes on the heels of another attack in Las 
Vegas where several Teslas were set on fire outside of a service 
center. I have no idea what that was supposed to accomplish.
  The protesters vandalized the building by spray-painting the word 
``resist'' on the front doors, while at least one protester reportedly 
threw a Molotov cocktail.
  Over on the west coast in Seattle, four Cybertrucks were set on fire 
earlier this month.
  The Associated Press has reported that there have been at least 50 
demonstrations around the country focused on Tesla, while more are 
planned, not just here in the United States but around the world in 
countries like England, Spain, and Portugal.
  Some Tesla owners have reported incidents of vandalism of their 
personal vehicles. Some have been even spray-painted with swastikas. 
Now, why anyone would think that would be a good idea is beyond me.
  It should go without saying, but I will say it anyway, that that kind 
of violence and vandalism of private property is unacceptable. But I 
know not everybody is speaking up to condemn these attacks.
  Now, I support the First Amendment. Obviously, I take an oath to 
support and defend the Constitution of the United States--all of us do 
here in the Congress--and I will defend the right of all Americans to 
express their views about government, even when they and I may 
disagree. But the First Amendment, we know, does not protect activities 
like placing explosive devices or damaging private property. Those are 
simply crimes, and I would hope that much is obvious.

  It is certainly understandable, and perhaps inevitable, that some 
people will disagree about reducing government spending. Our Democratic 
friends are the party of government. They got us 40-year high inflation 
because, during the last 4 years, we have seen an unprecedented 
expenditure of taxpayer dollars, which is inherently inflationary. And 
every single American has seen an increase in their cost of living and 
a decrease in their quality of life because they are paying about 21 
percent more today than they did 4 years ago.
  But there are people who think that spending money without any sort 
of second thought is a good idea--maybe people who benefit from that 
government spending--but they also have a right to express their 
concerns. I am not suggesting that they don't. But what is far from 
understandable and, in fact, is inexcusable is what we are seeing in 
the examples that I mentioned: this expression of political 
disagreement in the form of vandalism, destroying private property, and 
especially using potentially fatal means like the incendiary devices 
that were found in Austin. We should not hesitate to call this what it 
is: domestic terrorism.
  Now, I wish I could say that this kind of behavior is an anomaly and 
has

[[Page S1854]]

never happened before and is unlikely to happen again, but, 
unfortunately, this has happened before, and it is reminiscent of the 
violent unrest that plagued our Nation with the BLM riots that happened 
during the summer of 2020.
  We live in a democratic republic, not a banana republic. We are 
blessed to live in a country where we value and protect the rights of 
citizens to speak freely. We live in a country with universal suffrage, 
where citizens can bring their disagreements with their government 
officials to the ballot box.
  But placing bombs and lighting cars on fire is not an appropriate 
means of expressing dissenting views in a country like the one we are 
blessed to live in. We are so much better than that.
  For this reason, I was disappointed to see one of my fellow Texans in 
our congressional delegation go so far as to condone these kinds of 
activities. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett recently made comments 
encouraging violent protests at a virtual rally. She said, and I 
quote--these are her words, not mine. She said:

       All I want to see happen on my birthday is for Elon to be 
     taken down.

  Well, that could be interpreted any one of a number of ways, but I 
believe it is wrong to wish on any American, much less a fellow Texan, 
and I would expect better than this sort of incendiary rhetoric from a 
Member of Congress who was elected to her position because of the very 
democracy we are fortunate to enjoy.
  But this isn't the only thing she said recently that has raised 
eyebrows and resulted in condemnation. Congresswoman Crockett recently 
commented that our Governor, Gov. Greg Abbott--who happens to be a 
paraplegic as a result of a terrible accident years ago--she referred 
to him as ``Governor Hot Wheels,'' presumably because he is in a 
wheelchair due to an accident decades ago.
  And then Senator Cruz, my colleague, the junior Senator from Texas, 
she said should ``be knocked over the head, like hard.''
  This is disgraceful, and we should call it for what it is. We have a 
duty as elected officials to bring out the best in our country, not to 
take the low road. And, particularly, we should not encourage harm 
against people we don't particularly agree with. This is a disturbing 
trend in political rhetoric, one that has turned to violence--again, 
not for the first time, but we should condemn it, and we should shut it 
down now.

  These events should serve as a wake-up call that it is past time to 
turn down the temperature. I believe that all Americans and all Texans 
deserve better.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.