CNN’s Brian Stelter Says ‘There’s A Lot Elon Musk Can Bring To Government’ As He Hammers Him Over ‘Misinformation’

CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter told CNN anchor Jim Acosta that “There’s a lot Elon Musk can bring to government” after spending two solid minutes trashing him over “misinformation.”

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) thought he had secured a deal to keep the government open with a 1500-plus-page continuing resolution, but after Elon Musk led a charge against the bill, Trump came out against it as well.

Musk also posted a raft of false claims along the way, even drawing fire from a GOP congressman.

On Thursday’s edition of CNN Newsroom With Jim Acosta, Acosta hosted Stelter for a discussion of the budget flap.

Stelter spent a solid two minutes roasting Musk as a fountain of misinformation and ignorance about governing — then told Acosta Musk still has a lot to offer:

JIM ACOSTA: Brian, we’ve really never seen anything like this before where Elon Musk is out there saying “Kill this deal!” And then it’s killed.

BRIAN STELTER: And I know that we often talk on television, on cable news about things being unprecedented. Sometimes maybe we’re not quite right. In this case, we are right. Yes. Yes. Jim, this is unprecedented!

This is the world’s wealthiest man, a business tycoon now at the arm, at the hand of Donald Trump. You know, we know, for example, last night at Mar a Lago, Musk is sitting right there at the table with Trump and Jeff Bezos. He really is the best buddy in chief. And that’s why this deserves a lot of scrutiny.

So much of what Musk was posting on X yesterday about this spending bill was either misleading or outright false. He was referring to this bill being criminal. It’s literally a legal piece of paper that he’s calling criminal..

There’s a lot of misinformation that Musk is spreading about this spending bill. I think that’s a big part of the story here.

JIM ACOSTA: Yeah, and I was going to get to that, too, Brian. Musk did lead this campaign, sustained campaign to tank the bill, posting more than 100 tweets or Xs or whatever we call them these days.

Most of them–. Many of them featured false and misleading statements. I mean, he was talking about how there was insinuating there was funding for a new stadium deal for the Commanders here in Washington. That’s not exactly the case. And so on.

BRIAN STELTER: It oftentimes seems that Musk is learning about how government works for the first time. And there is value in having an outsider’s point of view. Lord knows when you have newly elected lawmakers come to Washington, they come with new and fresh and innovative ideas. That is a part of what makes government better.

But Musk, this unelected figure who has this enormous amount of power, it sometimes seems as if he’s just starting to learn how the government functions. And as a result, some of his X posts are completely false.

And by the way, it’s not just me saying it. Representative Dan Crenshaw, a Republican lawmaker, tweeted to Musk last night and said, “I love you, Elon, but you need to take five seconds to check your sources before highlighting bottom feeders looking for clicks.”.

You know, Musk likes to boost anonymous accounts that are spreading misinformation.

And let’s recognize a lot of people have benefited from Musk. You know, the Tesla stock has been on a tear lately. Lots of CEOs going to Mar a Lago. They’re probably jealous of Musk right now, both because of his relationship to Trump and because of the performance of Tesla and Musk’s other companies.

So there’s a lot Musk can bring to government.

But his behavior on X and his influence over the spending bill. It also shows how misinformation is at work here.

Watch above via CNN Newsroom With Jim Acosta.