Ever since Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral election in New York, Rep. Ro Khanna seems to have decided there's a far left lane in the 2028 race for President that he wants to own. Mamdani won the election last November and in December Khanna announced his support for the California wealth tax.
Ever since then, he has been on a media tour doing his best to raise his public profile as a the face of the resistance to what he calls the Epstein class. Some of his efforts to stake out this territory have ended in embarrassment, such as when he named a group of people in the Epstein files who turned out to be regular people who'd been used in a photo lineup.
A spokesperson from the office of Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, told the Guardian the file was a photo lineup used for investigative purposes by the SDNY.
“Rep Ro Khanna and Rep Thomas Massie forced the unmasking of completely random people selected years ago for an FBI lineup – men and women. These individuals have NOTHING to do with Epstein or Maxwell,” the spokesperson told the Guardian...
The Guardian spoke with two of the men whose names Khanna read out on the floor. They both strongly denied knowing Epstein at all; one said he didn’t realize his name had been mentioned on the House floor in connection to Epstein until the Guardian contacted him. The two men acknowledged they were arrested by the NYPD in the past for unrelated crimes, which could explain how their photos ended up in a photo array assembled by law enforcement.
Luckily for Khanna, he couldn't be sued for this blunder because he made it on the House floor where he's protected by the Speech and Debate clause. But this morning Khanna's luck may finally have run out.
Over the weekend, Khanna appeared on Jennifer Welch's show and spent some of his time attacking Elon Musk in particular. Here he is recommending Musk pay his proposed 5% wealth tax (which he and Bernie Sanders are pushing for nationally). As you can see, Musk responded by calling Khanna an "evil liar."
He’s such an evil liar
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 22, 2026
But Khanna wasn't done. On the same show he suggested that Musk needed to be investigated and possibly prosecuted for killing millions of children.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will need to be investigated for the “4.5 million children” whom he “possibly sentenced to death” through his spending cuts, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., argued Saturday.
Khanna suggested that the Democratic Party take initiative to hold Musk accountable if they were to regain control over the House of Representatives or the Senate.
“I do believe once we take power, there needs to be accountability,” Khanna said on the “I’ve Had It” podcast. “There needs to be accountability for Elon Musk. You know, they’re celebrating that he created 4,400 millionaires, but they don’t talk about the 4.5 million children around the world who he possibly sentenced to death by dismantling USAID.”
Khanna continued, “He needs to answer for that. He needs to be subpoenaed. He needs to face investigation. He needs to answer for what he did with DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency]. It’s not just ‘let’s move on.'”
Here's the video:
Ro Khanna: “There needs to be accountability for Elon Musk. They’re celebrating that he created 4,400 millionaires, but they don’t talk about the 4.5M children around the world who he possibly sentenced to death by dismantling USAID. He needs to answer for that. He needs to be… pic.twitter.com/5bAGCrzLhp
— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) June 21, 2026
Musk's response to the article above was brief. He said it was time to sue.
Time to sue this liar
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 22, 2026
Responses to this are across the board. Quite a few people like the idea.
Khanna is defaming Elon on podcasts, not on the floor of the House.
— Grateful Calvin (@shoveitjack) June 22, 2026
He is not protected. I hope Musk takes him for every last penny of his ill-gotten insider trading wealth.
Better lawyer up, Ro.
And you're next, Fauxcahontas. https://t.co/v4tOtyYD80
Others point out that Musk is giving Khanna exactly what he wants.
An in-kind donation to the potential 2028 Ro Khanna presidential campaign https://t.co/cLWGv6VvWX
— Adam Carlson (@admcrlsn) June 22, 2026
No doubt it would be satisfying to see Khanna sued and forced to defend his outrageously stupid comments in a civil trial, but I think it's far from obvious that Musk could win. Khanna was careful to use enough weasel works that, even though he's accusing Musk of a child genocide, he might not be found liable.
What is undeniable is that Khanna has been campaigning for exactly this reaction so he can claim he's the face of the opposition to Musk. That's what he's been wanting all along and a lawsuit would give it to him in spades. The best response to Khanna is to point out his failures and then ignore him.
A liar, a dunce, and an envious striver, truly insane that he represents Silicon Valley in Congress
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@christopherrufo) June 22, 2026
Musk is clearly pretty upset with Khanna.
Ro the Robber https://t.co/uUZlUjpEj9
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 22, 2026
Khanna's own fortune has grown dramatically:
“Robber” Khanna! https://t.co/YKfWaH4VmM
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 22, 2026
Anyway, Khanna is getting the attention he wanted.
Absolutely. This is a total lie.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 22, 2026
All DOGE did was require contact with the aid recipients to confirm that funds were being used legitimately. Anything less than this is insane!
Multiple people from USAID have been charged by the Justice Department with stealing money.… https://t.co/a6IyHi7mNI
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