- Elon Musk said he met with House leaders of both parties to ensure fairness on Twitter.
- The meeting was reportedly unplanned, and was “mostly just an introduction.”
- The meetings come just as the House is set to hold a hearing about Twitter’s content moderation before the 2020 election.
Elon Musk went to Capitol Hill on Thursday and had a surprise meeting with the House leaders of both parties to discuss Twitter.
Musk tweeted after the meeting: “Just met with @SpeakerMcCarthy & @RepJeffries to discuss ensuring that this platform is fair to both parties.”
McCarthy was cryptic about his meeting with Musk, who is the CEO and owner of Twitter, telling reporters, “he came to wish me a happy birthday,” according to a report by Bloomberg.
“We’ve been friends for years,” McCarthy added. He turned 58 on Thursday.
The meeting was not scheduled, according to CNN reporter Oliver Darcy, who cited an aide to Jeffries. Jeffries was reportedly in a meeting in Speaker McCarthy’s office when Musk came in.
“It was mostly an introduction,” the aide reportedly said.
Musk’s meetings with both sides of the aisle come as the tech billionaire increasingly wades into political discussions in recent months.
Musk encouraged his followers on Twitter to vote for “centrist candidates” ahead of the 2022 midterm election and said he would vote Republican, despite “overwhelmingly” voting for Democrats in the past.
The Capitol Hill drop-in also comes less than 2 weeks before the Republican-led House Oversight Committee plans to hold a hearing about Twitter’s handling of Hunter Biden’s laptop story. Former Twitter employees are set to testify.
The controversy surrounding Twitter’s decision to temporarily suppress a New York Post story on President Biden’s son’s laptop in 2020 predates Musk’s ownership of Twitter; He officially purchased the social media platform for $44 billion in October 2022.
