Elon Musk keeps insisting the Texas shooter with a swastika tattoo is not a white supremacist

In an interview with CNBC Tuesday night, Elon Musk defended spreading conspiracy theories concerning the lethal mass taking pictures in Texas earlier this month.

On Could ninth, open-source intelligence analysis group Bellingcat posted a narrative with particulars concerning the shooter that indicated he held white supremacist and neo-Nazi views. Bellingcat’s story included social media posts from the Russian social community Odnoklassniki that traced again to the shooter, together with photographs that includes a big swastika tattoo and physique armor with a RWDS (Proper-Wing Demise Squad, a far-right slogan) patch. The Texas Division of Public Security has additionally mentioned that the shooter confirmed indications of holding neo-Nazi ideology, with an official saying that “He had patches. He had tattoos.”

However on Twitter on Could ninth, Musk replied to a crude meme questioning particulars concerning the shooter, claiming that Bellingcat “actually makes a speciality of psychological operations” and saying that “that is both the weirdest story ever or a really unhealthy psyop!”

CNBC’s David Faber requested him about that tweet in an interview Tuesday night. “I believe it was incorrectly ascribed to be a white supremacist motion,” Musk mentioned. “And the proof for that was some obscure Russian web site that nobody’s ever heard of that had no followers. And the corporate that discovered this was Bellingcat. And have you learnt what Bellingcat is? Psyops.” In its story, Bellingcat notes that it didn’t in actual fact uncover the profile; its existence was first reported by The New York Occasions.

Musk added, “I’m saying I believed that ascribing it to white supremacy was bullshit. And that the data for that got here from an obscure Russian web site and was one way or the other magically discovered by Bellingcat, which is an organization that does psyops.” Bellingcat’s report describes discovering the profile by matching accounts in opposition to the shooter’s date of beginning. The account had posted photographs of identification paperwork, together with a dashing ticket and a boarding cross that included the shooter’s identify.

Musk’s feedback concerning the taking pictures have been a part of an escalating sequence of messages that echo right-wing speaking factors. Within the interview he equally defended feedback claiming billionaire philanthropist George Soros, a frequent goal of antisemitic conspiracy theories, “hates humanity.” Final 12 months he additionally shared a broadly dismissed conspiracy concept concerning the motives for an assault on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi. Later within the interview with CNBC, he reiterated his denial that the shooter held white supremacist views:

Faber: There’s no proof, by the best way, that he was not [a white supremacist]

Musk: I might say that there’s no proof that he’s.

Faber; And that’s a debate you wish to get into on Twitter?

Musk: Sure. As a result of we shouldn’t be ascribing issues to white supremacy whether it is false.