Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) questions U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as he testifies before the House Armed Services Committee at the Rayburn House Office Building on April 29, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Win McNamee | Getty Images
Congressman Ro Khanna, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, challenged newly billionaire Elon Musk in a televised debate about the impact of cuts made during Musk’s era as head of government efficiency initiatives, following an ugly social media spat between the Silicon Valley lawmaker and the tech giant.
“I challenge him to a debate…Let’s do it on CNN, let’s do it on CNBC, let’s do it at a university, he can choose the setting, and let’s discuss what happened with DOGE, let’s discuss why I’m in favor of a wealth tax,” Khanna said in an interview with CNBC on Monday. “If he believes in free speech and freedom of expression on these issues, we can discuss our views.”
The challenge arose in response to a heated exchange early Monday on Musk’s social media platform X, which called for Musk to be sued or even jailed. The California congressman has previously said that Musk needs to answer for the potential deaths caused by DOGE’s shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which infuriated Musk.
That would pit the world’s richest man against a leading candidate for the 2028 White House on a stage where Democrats are imposing new taxes on the wealthy and slamming billionaires.
“It doesn’t feel good when the richest person in the world, who has the biggest platform on X, says you should go to jail, you’re going to sue, then I’m a liar,” Khanna said in an interview. “I’m running against the richest man in the world, and I mean, I hope he actually discusses it.”
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment through a spokesperson.
The online battle between Mr. Khanna and Mr. Musk began early Monday morning, when Mr. Musk took issue with Mr. Khanna’s recent citation of a study published in the Lancet that claimed USAID cuts could kill more than 4.5 million children. Mr. Musk’s DOGE has effectively shut down USAID, which overran Washington last year in an effort to shrink the federal government and root out allegations of inefficiency.
On Saturday’s podcast, Khanna said Musk “needs to answer” for “the 4.5 million children around the world who could have been sentenced to death by dismantling USAID.”
Musk responded to a New York Post article summarizing Khanna’s comments, saying, “It’s time to prosecute this liar.”
“The criteria DOGE applied was very simple and easy: By providing the contact information of the recipient of the aid, we can ensure that it is not fraudulent,” Musk said in a later post. “The reality is that money was being sent to corrupt politicians in the name of aid! Liars and robbers like stock insider traders like Ro should be in jail!!”
Musk continued with a series of posts attacking Khanna.
The spat is not the first time Mr. Khanna has faced headwinds with his former allies in Silicon Valley. Earlier this year, many former supporters threatened to abandon him after he introduced a wealth tax in California.
In an interview with CNBC on Monday, Khanna said Musk has occasionally supported him, praised the book he wrote and opposed Twitter’s censorship of articles about former President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.
Khanna said he was “confused” by Musk’s citation of the Lancet study.
But Khanna, who led the bid to release the Epstein files, said he has no intention of stopping the pressure on the wealthy, even though he represents one of the wealthiest districts in the nation.
“The most important moral test for Democrats right now is whether they’re going to effectively fight the Trump administration and fight the oligarchy,” he said. “And with my work on the Epstein file and now denouncing Musk, I’ve been working on those fights.”
—Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
