Mark Takano: 'I Find It Peculiar' That Trump 'Has Exempted Elon Musk From Any Financial Disclosures'

2 days ago

During a Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus press briefing on Thursday, Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) spoke about Elon Musk's financial interests in China.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Obviously, you made it very clear that you feel some of the policies the administration

00:03are pursuing would create backlash in the Asian and Chinese-American community.

00:08But I'm just curious, do you feel that China poses a national security risk to the United States?

00:13Actually, I want to make it extremely clear that we want to make sure that our nation's

00:19secrets are safe.

00:22So we know that there must be strong security measures, but we do not believe that there

00:29should be scapegoating of Chinese-Americans.

00:31And what happened with this China initiative is that they looked at their ethnicity first

00:38and looked to see whether they could find something on them.

00:42And in most of the cases, it was paperwork mistakes.

00:45And what I mean by that is, you left out this grant that you had or this summer teaching

00:50program you had in China, therefore we are going to arrest you.

00:54And it ruined their lives.

00:56So yes, there was clear scapegoating of Chinese researchers whose names were then dragged

01:03across headlines, and they were fired from their universities.

01:09That's what I mean by scapegoating.

01:10But in terms of the national security risk?

01:12Of course we – okay, you know what, the China initiative was the first time that there

01:19was an initiative named after a particular country.

01:26If there was an initiative that was based on national security but not naming a country

01:32or an ethnicity, it makes a huge difference.

01:36But instead what it did was set the FBI to look particularly at a community, and that's

01:43where the scapegoating occurred.

01:44Can I add something to this?

01:45Yeah, please.

01:46I find it peculiar that the President has exempted Elon Musk from any financial disclosures.

01:55Everybody knows that he has a tremendous financial interest in China, his Tesla plants, his supply

02:01chain.

02:02Why isn't the press asking more about this contradiction?

02:06If you're really concerned about national security and how our posture with China might

02:12be compromised, why not question this very big financial interest and explore that financial

02:20interest that Elon Musk has and how his Doge activities may have a negative impact on our

02:27national security interest.

02:28I'm assuming you'd subpoena anybody who doesn't have the power.

02:31We already tried.

02:32We already tried.

02:33Michael, who?

Mark Takano: 'I Find It Peculiar' That Trump 'Has Exempted Elon Musk From Any Financial Disclosures'

Category

Transcript

Recommended