Bannon Calls for a Special Counsel Probe Into Elon Musk, Claims He Was on Drugs During Altercation With Bessent
Former Trump White House advisor turned MAGA podcaster, Steve Bannon, spoke to ex-NBC News political chief Chuck Todd over the weekend. The conversation took place on the first episode of Sunday Night with Chuck Todd, which launched Sunday on Noosphere — a new news app where journalists can distribute and monetize content.
At one point during the lengthy discussion, Bannon called for a special counsel investigation into Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, while hammering the tech entrepreneur over his many government contracts.
“That’s interesting, you think he can work his way back into the circle within reason?” Todd asked Bannon — referring to Musk’s recent, very public spat with President Donald Trump.
“No, I do not, but that doesn’t mean look—” Bannon replied as Todd pressed, “He’s gonna try though.”
“I think that two, a couple of stories breaking today, number one that already the Pentagon and other people are looking for a replacement for SpaceX because I make the case of if 90% of SpaceX is… First off, what he tweeted out the other day about the Dragon program, and they say this in the story if Lockheed Martin or any CEO had done that the board would immediately have fired him. Right, and they were going to the Pentagon—” Bannon continued as Todd cut in:
It’s not lost on me that Musk ratcheted that threat back pretty quickly.
“Immediately, but it’s still you can’t have something like that. 90%, I think it’s 90% of SpaceX’s revenues come from the government contracts, okay?” Bannon replied, doubling down on his recent call to nationalize SpaceX:
They just did a financing [round], we found out at a 318 billion dollar valuation I think that he owns 50% so he’s made 100 to 150 billion dollars in net worth on government contracts. Why do we not have warrants or options, huge packages for the American taxpayer as part of that?
I’m actually for and I realize I always take a maximalist position I think we ought to go in and say with the new management, we’re going to nationalize SpaceX because it’s a government entity anyway, with 90% of the revenues.
Todd added, “Well, it can’t function without NASA, NASA can’t function without it.”
“Exactly, this is my point, and ongoing, and the program he was talking about cutting is a hundred billion dollar program to save the astronauts. This is across the board. We just found out now that Starlink has completely rewired the White House to put Starlink in, and maybe even some of the White House personnel. So who knows?” Bannon argued.
“I think we just, my point is, let’s everybody step back, take a deep breath. I think there have to be formal investigations,” continued the MAGA ideologue. Todd pressed, “Where do these investigations come from? Is it IGs or — I think — We don’t have IGs right now.”
“I think the best way to do it is as a special counsel that can kind of oversee everything. Pull the security clearance for the drugs, temporarily, investigate the whole drug situation,” Bannon replied.
“But he never would have passed a security clearance as just a mid-level staffer,” Todd added as Bannon agreed, “Zero.”
“Given what the drug use that was on the record,” Todd added about Musk’s past.
The two went on to discuss the recent revelation that Musk had a physical altercation with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in the White House, which Todd noted Bannon was the source for in the Washington Post’s report. During that part of the conversation, Bannon claimed that Musk was rumored to be “micro-dosing’ ahead of the showdown.
Bannon has long been a critic of Musk, even going so far as to call him a “parasitic illegal immigrant” in the past.
Watch the clip above.
