Former White House strategist Steven Bannon slammed high-profile tech executives in an interview with CNN’s Oliver Darcy on Wednesday, and he had some particularly harsh words for Tesla’s TSLA, -1.32% boss:
‘Tesla is out of control. The board of directors have no control over the CEO. The CEO essentially lies. He flat out lied about securing funding. He then has an emotional breakdown with the New York Times. This is the level of maturity you have with these people. They are not mature adults. They are all man childs. How can they have this unlimited power? It’s outrageous.’
Bannon also ripped leaders at Facebook FB, +1.01% , Twitter TWTR, +0.62% and Google GOOG, -1.05% as “narcissists” and “sociopaths,” adding that “these people are evil. There’s no doubt about that.”
As for Musk, Bannon’s characterization of his “emotional breakdown” with the Times NYT, -4.47% came just hours after Musk denied the claim in this tweet:
For the record, my voice cracked once during the NY Times article. That’s it. There were no tears.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 28, 2018
Bannon is familiar with Musk beyond just his Twitter feed and public face. Musk served on two advisory councils to Trump but quit in June of last year when the president decided to back out of the Paris climate agreement, a controversial decision in which Bannon reportedly played a key role.
Here are Darcy’s notes on the interview:
Bannon also had some brief thoughts on Tesla and @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/GIWK2SHxrg
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) August 30, 2018
Tesla declined to comment.
