Musk huddles with McCarthy, speaks briefly with Jeffries in quick Capitol visit

Twitter CEO Elon Musk met with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in the Capitol on Thursday, a meeting that focused on the explosive topic of ensuring that Twitter is even-handed in its approach to both the Democratic and Republican Parties, according to Musk’s account of the conversation.

Musk also met briefly with the top House Democrat, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), who was meeting with McCarthy around the time that Musk arrived, according to a source familiar with the encounter. 

“Just met with @SpeakerMcCarthy & @RepJeffries to discuss ensuring that this platform is fair to both parties,” Musk wrote on Twitter Thursday afternoon.

McCarthy, who turned 58 on Thursday, declined to discuss the conversation, quipping that Musk was visiting the Capitol merely to commemorate his special day. 

“He came to wish me happy birthday,” the Speaker told reporters while emerging from his office. “We’ve been friends for years.”

Thursday was not the first time Musk huddled with McCarthy. In August, he spoke at a Republican retreat hosted by McCarthy in Wyoming, which GOP candidates and supporters also attended.

Jeffries had not previously planned to meet with Musk, the source said, but McCarthy offered to introduce the pair, and they spoke briefly as Jeffries was leaving the Speaker’s office.

Asked about the discussion later in the evening, Jeffries declined to comment. 

Musk’s visit to the Capitol comes at a volatile moment for Twitter, which is trying to find its footing under the new CEO, who came aboard less than three months ago with vows to eliminate content moderation policies that conservatives had claimed were biased against them. 

In one of his most high-profile acts as CEO thus far, Musk reinstated former President Trump’s Twitter account, ending a ban that went into effect following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The ex-president, however, has not returned to the platform he utilized prolifically during his tenure in the White House, opting to continue using his Truth Social platform to relay messages.

Just this week, Meta announced that Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts would also be reinstated.

Hours before the visit, Jeffries was asked about the decisions by Meta and Twitter to reinstate Trump’s social media accounts. The Democratic leader declined to comment specifically, but he’s warned in the past that the former president poses a danger to the country’s democratic traditions, and he amplified that message on Thursday. 

“The threats to democracy related to Donald Trump speak for themselves,” Jeffries said.

Musk’s visit to Capitol Hill also comes amid speculation that the House Oversight and Reform Committee is requesting testimony from former Twitter employees at a hearing next month to discuss how the platform dealt with reporting on Hunter Biden.

Republicans have accused Twitter’s former leaders of suppressing, in the months before the 2020 elections, an explosive story involving a mysterious laptop computer owned by President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Now in the House majority, Republicans are focusing a number of investigations on the contents of the younger Biden’s laptop, as well as his business dealings abroad. 

Axios reported earlier this month that Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the chairman of the Oversight and Reform Committee, penned letters to ex-Twitter employees who had a hand in determining how the New York Post report was presented on the platform.