Former Vice President Kamala Harris has turned on her old boss, former President Joe Biden, slamming his 2021 decision to exclude Elon Musk from a major White House electric vehicle event — calling it a “big mistake.”
Harris made the remarks at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C., where she revisited the Biden administration’s handling of the EV industry and its relationship with Tesla.
“I write in the book that I thought it was a big mistake to not invite Elon Musk when we did a big EV event,” Harris said, referring to her new memoir, 107 Days.
She described Musk as “the major American manufacturer of extraordinary innovation in this space,” adding that the White House’s decision to leave him out of the 2021 event was politically motivated and short-sighted.
At the time, Biden hosted executives from Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler’s parent company, Stellantis, but Tesla — the nation’s top EV maker — was nowhere to be found.
Then-Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters the event featured “the three largest employers of the United Auto Workers,” pointedly reminding everyone that Tesla wasn’t unionized.
When asked if the omission was a punishment, Psaki replied, “I’ll let you draw your own conclusion.”
Musk didn’t hold back. He tweeted, “Yeah, seems odd that Tesla wasn’t invited,” and later accused the Biden administration of being “not the friendliest” and “controlled by unions.”
Harris’s comments now confirm what many suspected — that the White House deliberately snubbed Musk to please labor groups, the New York Post reported.
She told Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell, “I thought that was a mistake, and I don’t know Elon Musk, but I have to assume that that was something that hit him hard.”
She added that presidents should “put aside political loyalties” when recognizing innovation, calling the decision one of several early missteps by the Biden administration.
In her memoir, Harris also blames Biden’s team for alienating Musk, saying the incident helped push the billionaire closer to the GOP. Reports show Musk later donated nearly $300 million to Republican-aligned groups and became one of Trump’s biggest backers.
Harris didn’t stop there. She criticized the administration’s early legislative agenda, saying Biden prioritized the CHIPS Act and infrastructure bill instead of addressing inflation and basic family needs.
“When we made the decision to put those first, I think that was a mistake,” she said. “If we can’t meet the basic needs of the people, there will be this backlash.”
The snub reportedly angered Musk so much that he began mocking Biden online, especially after the president ignored SpaceX’s historic civilian spaceflight in 2021.
Weeks later, Biden credited GM’s Mary Barra with having “electrified the entire automobile industry” — a line that enraged Musk, whose company had already sold over 115,000 EVs that quarter compared to GM’s 26,000.
