Musk rips media over hypocrisy over Booker gesture

Tech billionaire Elon Musk slammed the "legacy media" over the weekend, alleging hypocrisy in how news outlets covered Sen. Cory Booker's (D-N.J.) recent arm gesture after he faced criticism for a similar gesture earlier this year.

Booker, while speaking at the California Democratic Convention on Saturday, placed his hand on his heart before extending his arm toward the crowd.

Videos of the moment quickly spread on social media, with some users placing it alongside a video of Musk making a similar arm gesture on Inauguration Day. Musk's gesture drew days of headlines as scrutiny grew over whether the Tesla CEO made a Nazi salute.

Responding to screenshots comparing the news headlines that covered Musk's and Booker's gestures, Musk wrote "Legacy media lies" in a Sunday his social platform X

The user Musk was responding to had written, "Terrible legacy media and how they went after Elon Musk. Now they are defending Cory Booker for the same hand gesture."

In another repost comparing headlines from Newsweek, Musk wrote, "Fate loves irony, but hates hypocrisy."

"Legacy media like Newsweek lie relentlessly," he added.

Newsweek declined to comment.

"Legacy media is one big psy op," Musk wrote in another repost of a user listing major outlets that had not covered Booker's gesture but did cover Musk's earlier this year.

Musk also reposted another user who shared pictures of prominent Democrats such as former President Obama, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton making similar gestures in past speeches.

The user wrote, "We know where Cory Booker learned his Nazi salute from." Musk reposted it with an emoji of a face with a raised eyebrow.

Musk reposted several other users criticizing the lack of scrutiny on Booker, including one who wrote, "If Elon Musk is a Nazi for doing this gesture...Cory Booker is one too. Sorry, I don't make the rules."

A spokesperson for Booker told The Hill the senator was "obviously just waving to the crowd."

"Anyone who claims his wave is the same as Elon Musk’s gesture is operating in bad faith. The differences between the two are obvious to anyone without an agenda," Booker spokesperson Maya Krishna-Rogers wrote in a statement.

Musk has increasingly criticized what he and others on the right call "legacy media" for their coverage. During an interview on CNBC last month, he blamed the "legacy media propaganda" for the public's backlash against him since he entered the political fold.

When asked for an example of this, Musk said, “That I’m a Nazi, for example. And how many legacy media publications, talk shows, whatever, try to claim that I was a Nazi because of some random hand gesture at a rally where all I said was that my heart goes out to you."

“I was talking about space travel, and yet the legacy media promoted that as though that was a deliberate Nazi gesture, when in fact, every politician, any public speaker who’s spoken for any length of time, has made the exact same gesture,” he added.