The X factor: How Trump ally Elon Musk is using social media to prime voter mistrust ahead of 2024 election
CBSN
Elon Musk has used the social media platform he owns to amass nearly 3.3 billion views on X by fueling doubts about election security issues since January this year — making the tech mogul one of the most viral voices on elections during the 2024 campaign, a CBS News investigation has found.
Musk has frequently shared conspiratorial narratives that have been vexing to public officials who are trying to maintain Americans' confidence in the election in the face of a barrage of misinformation and disinformation.
At his first solo appearance at a pro-Trump rally in Philadelphia last week, Musk claimed, "Statistically there are some very strange things that happen that are statistically incredibly unlikely." He then repeated debunked claims about the validity of vote tallies produced by Dominion voting machines. But even before he took the stage, Musk had already emerged as a prolific conduit for election misinformation on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The New Mexico National Guard continued search and rescue operations Sunday in Roswell after record rainfall produced severe flooding in and around the city and Chaves County and left at least two people dead. The flooding even forced a local sheriff to seek safety on top of his police truck when it became stranded in water that rose up to the windows.
Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX who's gone all-in on Republican Donald Trump's candidacy for the White House, is pledging to give away $1 million a day to voters for signing his political action committee's petition backing the Constitution. The offer is sparking questions among election experts about the plan's legality.
After midnight on July 6, Sonya Massey called 911 to report a prowler. When sheriff's deputies responded, she answered the door in her nightgown, thanking and welcoming them into her home in Springfield, Illinois. But two minutes later, Sangamon County Deputy Sean Grayson took aim at Massey's face and fired a fatal gunshot, killing her in her kitchen. The morning prior, her mother Donna had warned police that her daughter was in the middle of a mental health crisis.