Mark Kelly went on CNN Thursday after Elon Musk doubled down on calling the Arizona senator, Gulf War veteran, and astronaut a “traitor” over his support for Ukraine, saying the Trump ally is only aligning himself with “a bunch of billionaires” and has views which are too Russia-friendly.
On OutFront, Kelly reacted to Musk’s joint interview on Fox News in the previous hour in which he reiterated his view that Kelly is a “traitor” because he doesn’t put the interests of the United States above those of other countries.
“I don’t even know if he deserves a response,” Kelly told host Erin Burnett at first.
“But what I will say is that I’ve spent an entire career standing up for our country, defending our country, flying in combat over Iraq, flying in space on the space shuttle, serving in the United States Senate,” Kelly explained. “My entire life has been about serving this country, and I always stand with the best interests of our nation. And I will tell you this, Erin: Standing with our allies and standing up for democracy is in the best interest of the United States.”
Musk, on the other hand, has been acting out of a different set of motivations, Kelly argued.
“I mean, who is Elon standing with at this point? A bunch of billionaires?” he said, adding that he views Musk as “being much closer to Russia on this issue” than the U.S. regarding Russia’s war against its neighbor.
“I want this thing to end as much as anybody. But he throws this ‘traitor’ word around—at least with regards to me—fairly freely. I don’t think he’s a serious guy, and he hasn’t given this a lot of thought,” Kelly said.
After Musk’s initial comment earlier this month, Kelly has responded sharply several times.
“Traitor?” he wrote on X. “Elon, if you don’t understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do.”
In an MSNBC interview later on, Kelly contrasted his service in the Navy, which required an oath to the Constitution, to Musk’s “oath to his own checking account.”
Kelly added that he believes the “slash-and-burn of the federal government” carried out by Musk, the world’s richest person, is to “create a little space so the big, giant tax cuts that they’re going to give for millionaires and billionaires do not look as bad, does not add as much to the debt and deficit.”
And in a more personal jab at Musk, Kelly announced he was selling his Tesla earlier this month.
“I don’t want to be driving a car built and designed by an a-----e,” he said in a video uploaded to Musk’s social media site.
