Elon Musk has threatened legal action after former Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., referred to President Donald Trump’s top adviser as a “Nazi” and a “thief” during a recent appearance on CNN.
“I’ve had enough. Lawsuit inbound,” Musk wrote on X on Friday, replying to a clip of Bowman’s recent roundtable table discussion on CNN.
Bowman, who was beaten in a July 2024 Democratic primary by a centrist pro-Israel candidate, told a panel of CNN commentators that the “American people do not trust Elon Musk and Elon Musk is incompetent in his position.”
“How do we know? Because they fired tens of thousands of people, was challenged in court. The court said the people have to go back, and now the people are coming back,” Bowman told CNN.
“He’s incompetent. He’s a thief. He’s a Nazi. And people don’t trust him,” Bowman claimed of Musk.
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Other Democrats have also hurled fascist claims against Musk, including Bowman’s former fellow “Squad” member, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., who said last month Musk was a “Nazi nepo baby.”
In October 2023, then-Rep. Bowman turned himself in to police after the district attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., charged him with making a false fire alarm.
District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb charged Bowman with a misdemeanor “after he pulled the fire alarm in a House office building before a vote in late September on a temporary funding package to prevent a government shutdown,” the Daily Caller reported.
Bowman was charged with a violation of D.C. codes. There is “probable cause to believe that the defendant willfully or knowingly gave a false fire alarm within the District of Columbia,” Bowman’s arrest report said, according to the outlet.
At the time, Bowman claimed that he thought that by pulling the alarm, a door would open.
“Today as I was rushing to make a vote, I came to a door that is usually open for votes but today would not open,” Bowman said following the incident, which was captured on video and immediately seized upon by Republicans. “I am embarrassed to admit that I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door. I regret this and sincerely apologize for any confusion this caused.”
Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) introduced a resolution previously to censure Bowman following his indictment. The censure measure also called for stripping Bowman of his committee assignments.
“The House of Representatives censures Jamaal Bowman, Representative of the 16th Congressional District of New York, for violating District of Columbia Criminal Code Section 22-1319 by knowingly causing a false alarm of fire in an attempt to obstruct official proceedings of the House,” the resolution says.
“Bowman will forthwith present himself in the well of the House of Representatives for the pronouncement of censure,” it also reads, with the pronouncement to be done by then-newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
Bowman has been criticized by Democrats and Republicans. And his stunt led to a closed-door meeting with his party’s leader, Hakeem Jeffries, a fellow New York Democrat, following a complaint filed with the House Ethics Committee.
“What I did was against D.C. law,” Bowman said. “As I said from the very beginning, I was not trying to disrupt any congressional proceedings, I’m glad the investigation yielded that.”
Fox News reported that Bowman copped a plea with the DA’s office: He will pay a $1000 fine and write a letter of apology — or someone on his staff will — to the U.S. Capitol Police Dept.