Below is my column in The Hill on the disgraceful Democratic attacks against Elon Musk over his status as a naturalized citizen. For years, some of us have raised concerns over the adoption of McCarthyite tactics and rhetoric by the left to demonize those with opposing viewpoints, including critics of the massive censorship system under the Biden Administration. Those attacks are now reaching a dangerous crescendo after the 2024 loss in the presidential election.
Here is the column:
This month, 75 years ago, Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-Wisc.) gave his infamous speech denouncing disloyal Americans working at the highest levels of our government. It was the defining moment for what became known as McCarthyism, which attacked citizens as dangerous and disloyal influences in government.
Some of us have criticized the rising “rage rhetoric” for years, including that of President Trump and Democratic leaders, denouncing opponents as traitors and enemies of the state.
In the 2024 election, the traditional red state-blue state firewalls again collapsed, as they had in 2016. The response among Democrats has been to unleash a type of new Red Scare, questioning the loyalty of those who are supporting or working with the Trump administration in carrying out his promised reforms.
Elon Musk is the designated disloyal American for many on the left. That rage has reached virtual hysteria on ABC’s “The View.” This is the same show before the election on which hosts warned that, if Trump were elected, journalists and homosexuals would be rounded up and “disappeared.”
After the election, democracy seemed to stubbornly hang on, so the hosts had to resort to attacking as disloyal anyone joining the government or supporting Trump’s policies.
This week, co-host Joy Behar followed many others in questioning Musk’s loyalty and attacking him over being a naturalized American citizen: “The guy was not born in this country, who was born under apartheid in South Africa. So, [he] has that mentality going on. He was pro-Apartheid, as I understand it.”
Behar was then forced, perhaps by panicked ABC lawyers, to walk back the comment — such retractions having become a regular feature on “The View“. What came out was the type of jumbled confusion that results when you interrupt a lunatic on the metro in mid-rave.
Behar stated: “I’m getting some flack because I said that Musk was pro-apartheid. I don’t really know for sure if he was … He was around at that time, but maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t—he might have been a young guy, too. So, don’t be suing me, okay Elon?”
This anti-immigrant attack on Musk, however, has worked its way into many Democrats’ talking points, even though their party had previously claimed to defend immigrants against racist Republicans seeking to close the Southern border and deport criminal illegal immigrants.
On Capitol Hill, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) launched a xenophobic tirade that should have shocked the conscience of the nation. She warned citizens that Musk could not be trusted because he is an immigrant who has been a citizen for only a couple of decades: “Mr. Musk has just been here just 22 years and he’s a citizen of three countries. I always ask myself the question: With the damage he’s doing here when push comes to shove, which country is he loyal to? South Africa, Canada, or the United States? And he’s only been a citizen, I’ll say again, 22 years.”
Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney was another joining in to attack Musk for being an immigrant. “You may be unfamiliar with that part of our history since you weren’t yet an American citizen,” she wrote on Musk’s social media platform, X.
These attacks are straight out of McCarthy’s playbook. It was McCarthy who insisted that “there are no degrees of loyalty in the United States — a man is either loyal or he’s disloyal…” Of course, McCarthy (and the earlier Red Scare) attacked government employees, writers and others on the left. It is now the left that is employing the same tactics, including censorship, blacklisting and public vilification.
Throughout the 2024 campaign, the Democrats, including President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, painted Republicans as either aspiring or actual fascists. That continued recently with Minnesota Gov. and former Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz (D), who referred to Republicans as “fascists and Nazis.”
Even journalists and civil libertarians have been reviled using the same terms. After a hearing on censorship two years ago, MSNBC contributor and former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) attacked journalists and members who had spoken in favor of free speech. She denounced the member witnesses (Sen. Chuck Grassley, Sen. Ron Johnson and former Rep. Gabbard) as “Putin apologists” and Putin-lovers.
Stacey Plaskett, the Democratic delegate representing the Virgin Islands in the U.S. House, even suggested arresting respected journalist Matt Taibbi, who, along with Michael Shellenberger, testified on their investigation into a massive censorship system developed under the Biden administration.
The attack on Musk is particularly disgraceful, given his contributions to his adopted country. Ironically, filmmaker Michael Moore denounced the deportations of criminal illegal immigrants last week by noting that Trump was deporting someone who might cure cancer or be the next Steve Jobs. Well, this is a naturalized citizen who not only could be the next Elon Musk. He is Elon Musk.
As politicians and pundits question Musk’s loyalty, Space X is moving to rescue two astronauts stranded in space. Musk has volunteered his time and skills to achieving a record reduction in the size and waste in government. One can disagree with his priorities or the means he uses to achieve his goals, but he has nobly stepped forward to serve his country despite death threats from the left.
Musk is also facing such attacks in Canada, where thousands have signed petitions to strip him of his citizenship. The left did not seek to revoke the citizenship of figures who have eviscerated free speech and other individual rights in that country. It is Musk who is persona non grata.
This is nothing new for Musk, whom the left has targeted since he announced an intention to buy Twitter and restore free speech protections on that site.
The concern is not for Musk, who has the intestinal fortitude (and financial means) to stand up to a global mob. Moreover, with polls showing overwhelming support for reducing the size of government and the budget, the campaign to obstruct these efforts is unlikely to resonate with voters.
The danger is more acute for the country as disagreements over policy are transformed into attacks over loyalty. It is the most dangerous form of rage rhetoric, an effort not to debate but to demonize those with whom you disagree.
When you have members of Congress standing in front of the Capitol, denouncing naturalized citizens as untrustworthy after a mere 22 years as a citizen, it is a moment that would have made McCarthy blush.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.
Not unlike the TDS, the Trump Derangement Syndrome, the Democrats also suffer from the NES, Not Enough Syndrome. This means the Democrats are locked into a model of when a policy is not working, the reason is they haven’t tried hard enough. This applies to attacks on Trump, familiar to all. They haven’t worked. It also applies to spending, whereby if spending on a policy isn’t working, then the solution is to spend more. It hasn’t worked, as per climate, education, DEI, et al. Now it has been applied to Elon Musk. Opposing his “National Audit” with standard attacks that he’s not vetted, etc, they move forward to increased and more virulent attacks. Never ever do the Democrats consider their policies are in error. Democrats, slaves to NES, are entirely predictable.
The Democrats are just the fleas and ticks on the global canal trying to reshape America. WEF is a good place to start exploring the criminality of what is transpiring on the world stage.
Trump is deranged, alright.
What Americans should be asking is Why does George Soros control the Banking System in Ukraine? Elon Musk and President Trump are going to expose the full cycle of the taxpayer laundromat as well as further expose the globalist cabal trying to destroy America.
Leftists are and always were, trash. I am not surprised that Liz Cheney is acting like an idiot, I am surprised at how far she has fallen. Never Trumper’s seem to have an ever evolving platform. The only ones they appear to support are themselves.
“Liz Cheney is acting like an idiot”
You are convinced that is an act?
The greatest danger of McCarthyism was (and is today) that politicians invented a false-loyalty oath. Innocent Americans were then destroyed and even died from being falsely tarred & feathered.
McCarthyism itself was constitutionally-subversive. During the McCarthy blacklisting era, the U.S. Department of Justice, military and intelligence agencies created “subversives” lists.
In other words – although many times well meaning – the federal agencies themselves were constitutionally-subversive and they were targeting Americans that were loyal to their Oath of Office. Subversives persecuting non-subversives (but with good intentions).
Why that’s relevant today in 2025? If Democrats or Republicans win control of the federal government, either party can invent a false-loyalty oath that violates the constitutional Oath of Office.
For example: what if the January 6 protesters stayed outside the U.S. Capitol building and never stepped foot inside the Capitol. Never constructed a gallows to hang Mike Pence? Although most of us disagree with their constitutional rights, these protesters were still legal under the U.S. Constitution (loyal to the Oath of Office). Many were simply following Trump’s subversive ideas.
Same for peaceful “Black Lives Matters” protesters. You may disagree with their message but those that were peaceful and lawful are non-subversive under the U.S. Constitution.
A government official covertly blacklisting any American, of either party, for legal First Amendment activity is subversive for any American official. McCarthyism is really about false-loyalty oaths.
Ashcroft’s Zeitgeist:
We know from the Venona decrypts and documents released by Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union that McCarthy was right. The government during the FDR administration had become infested with hundreds of Soviet spies. Literally hundreds. All traitors. Many were Ivy Leaguers. Many were Jewish. The Silvermaster spy ring produced the Rosenbergs who were hanged for their espionage. Hundreds of others should have been hanged.
Some of the multi-lateral organizations the world is burdened by today were spearheaded by Soviet spies. The World Bank, Interntional Monetary Fund and the global currency regime concocted at Bretton Woods still in use today were ushered in by Soviet spy Harry Dexter White. Alger Hiss, another FDR era Soviet spy, was FDR’s man who effectively created the United Nations.
McCarthy has been unfairly maligned. He was right. He should be remembered as a hero.
It’s disgusting that the Left has so corrupted the education establishment and the culture that he is reviled for attempting to root out the traitors who were disloyal to America.
The left is skilled at shifting blame for their misdeeds onto others. McCarthy was not a likable fellow but was mainly correct, yet the left turned the hate against him instead of where it deserved to be: against them. People often equate the House of Unamerican Activities (HUAC) with McCarthy, but McCarthy was a Senator and not from the House. He arrived on the scene later.
On the net, one can listen to the part of the hearing where the words leveled at McCarthy were, “Have you no decency.” This short phrase often spouted was not in response to McCarthy releasing multiple names, as usually claimed, but rather to him mentioning a single individual, a lawyer from Welch’s own firm who had been involved in questionable activities.
McCarthy is blamed for his list, but he never mentioned those names, and his list was shorter than the FBI’s list. Additionally, he didn’t ask that any of these people be fired. He only asked that they be investigated and removed from sensitive positions until cleared. The Venona documents proved him correct. They even had a hearing much like the J6 hearing where Democrats lied. My understanding is that on his deathbed, one of the Democrats admitted to the lies.
Understandably, the left wants to blame McCarthy, but one has to ask why so many on the right fall into the trap of believing these false things about McCarthy and wish to level the blame on him instead of those who were guilty. They are doing the job of the left-smearing people who wanted communists removed from the government.
Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies by M. Stanton Evans.
So J6 folks were subversive and BLM riots were peaceful?? How do you argue with this biased mindset?
Compare the damage from J6 to the damage from BLM and antifa. Antifa firebombed police cars and burned courthouses, or do you deny this?
Many were simply following Trump’s subversive ideas.
We apparently have a subversive president? Or more likely, a subversive Democrat or Never Trumper nutjob.
It’s the old Marxist adage used by both their communist and National Socialist factions “Tell a lie about somebody often enough, and the envious, bitter, grieving street rabble will accept it as truth.
Twice we almost defeated Kaptur, most recently this last election. We came very close. I will rejoice when she retires. Although, someone just as bad will replace her. Here in Toledo we have the same old people occupying all the elected positions — they play musical chairs.
My sister held two different elected offices and it nearly killed us (her family) – mentally and emotionally — people are vicious in NW OH.
P.S. I meant to include how thoroughly disgusted I was with Kaptur’s rant about Elon Musk.
Please do not think everyone in NW OH, all of OH, are like her.
Why should anyone regard this as an issue worthy of serious attention? What audience can The View now have except for a relatively small contingent of brainwashed Dem/Woke loyalists who will mindlessly chant whatever slogan they have last been fed? Jonathan Turley has done his share in rightly making these clowns irrelevant. I now would prefer to see him recognize his success in that regard, and just ignore them.
Yeah ignore them spend some time discussing Trump’s flagrant attacks on the indispensable right instead.
Maybe start with WAPO columnist Eugine Robinson.
The list is long.
Yeah! How DARE Trump call out the lying “journalists” who see it as their sole mission to take out Trump with insinuations, misrepresentations, and flat out lies!
When Trump does that, it’s a flagrant and unconstitutional attack on the Soviet Democrat-Marxist Mainstream Media Propaganda Complex. HOW DARE HE!
The fact that The View has an hour long platform on OUR airwaves and on one of the 3 original networks is very telling on how far left the MSM has gone. I am not saying ban the show, that is a leftist move, I am saying voluntarily stay away from ABC shows in general, especially the “News” division.
HullBobby,
That is why so many people are switching MSM off. The garbage they spew is over the top. The View is nothing but a remake of the Jerry Springer show.
Hullbobby-the View should be anointed as a triggering event
Well what can you expect from Dem Crazies! Recall Eric Holder and Michelle Obama gleefully telling their team – when they go low we go high, etc. Looks like the Dems only have ethics and morality when they are in charge and when they lose or are out of power that flushing sound is where their standards go! Perfect as ALL AMERICANS can watch the political 5 year-olds have a tantrum and hold their breath until they pass out!
Turls, absolutely hilarious you cite McCarthy in this push piece when most of your core group of magats believe him to be a hero and the lawyer you obviously modeled with your Hunter Biden character assassination campaign was Roy Cohn!! So cool!!…
Maybe it’ll put a hitch in their giddyup when they reflexively spit out their ‘commie sexual predator’ uncontrollable outbursts directed at the truths they’re incapable of hearing? They’re some pretty organically stupid muhf$%ckers, honestly. Wonder how the country ever got some GDP out of them…
As to Musk? Taking Starlink down for the Ukrainians after talking to Putin is a problematic fact pattern. As is, trump’s clear Russian asset role, so there’s that.
Party on!!
Please try to discuss what Turley states in his column and give us an honest opinion of the nasty hypocrisy of the people condemning someone that has “only been here 22 years”. If you can’t do that it speaks volumes.
Hullslobby, it would be nice if a magat such as yourself could actually not slide completely into incoherence inside a few sentences. Let’s just say that.
“Hullslobby”, now that is some clever repartee right there.
Give us more of your fond memories of the heady days of the illegal Clinton/Obama/Biden/DNC “Trump-Russia Dossier” that still reside in the core of the Soviet Democrat Borg!
Party on with that!!!! Don’t change a single thing you post and say through the upcoming 2026 mid-term election and 2028 presidential election!!!!
Double down and recruit The DEI Hire Border Czar to run again! Hillary Clinton will gratefully agree to be your candidate if the DEI Hire Has found a better grift before then!
Oh look! It’s indeed possible to put the lamest of lame fox cliches all into the same paragraph.
Truth is, and this delights me to say it to some degree, policy announcements from an upcoming Murphy/AOC administration, with Crockett and Frost high up in Congressional leadership, will be just too much for you and will cause your systems to shut down. Best case scenario has you spitting and screaming at nurses in your nursing home with your drivel. Party on!!
Every American official and government contractor – including Musk – swears supreme loyalty to the U.S. Constitution.
When officials make a promise to GOD to follow the U.S. Constitution, it only governs their job authority as a government official. It has no effect on their private lives unless there are conflicts-of-interest with their job authority.
In 2021 Trump appeared to violate Section 3 of the 14th Amendment (Disqualification Clause). Then in 2025 Trump again tried to illegally overturn the birthright clause of the same 14th Amendment.
Professor Turley in the early 2000’s used to strongly criticize oath sworn officials that were disloyal to their Oath of Office. Disloyal to America’s supreme loyalty oath. Back then Republicans opposed Turley’s fair & balanced scrutiny.
Most Republicans viewed Turley as a Democrat when Bush was pushing the “Unitary Executive Theory” (dictator model) and Bush violating Ronald Reagan’s Torture treaty.
Today in 2025, Turley is largely silent about blatant violations of the American Oath of Office, unless Democrats do it. Many of Turley’s longterm fans want the old Turley back!
How dare Trump take constitutional issues to …court. Fool.
Hullbobby-You Brevity is Beautiful. Laconic I think.
Anon: You said: “In 2021 Trump appeared to violate Section 3 of the 14th Amendment (Disqualification Clause). Then in 2025 Trump again tried to illegally overturn the birthright clause of the same 14th Amendment.” Your first statement was about Colorado trying to use the 14th Amendment to bar Trump’s name from being on the ballot. A 5-4 decision by the SCOTUS ruled that states cannot enforce this provision of the 14th Amendment that was meant for Congress only to consider. Your second claim of “illegally” trying to overturn the birthright clause of the 14th Amendment has good people on both sides of the issue that ultimately will be decided as constitutional or not by the SCOTUS. The “American Oath of Office” is a reverred American tradition that carries with it no specific penalty, per se, for failure to comply. Presumably, if there is a penalty, it will be imposed in the hereafter. To be sure, there are penalties for high crimes and misdemeanors and Congress has passed laws prohibiting many other types of crimes but failing to hold to one’s oath, despite its importance, cannot separately be charged or punished.
jjc: what a very nice way to politely say “You are a fvcking idiot who doesn’t even begin to understand constitutional issues”.
The only remaining question is whether that post was the actual beliefs of that poster, suggesting they have good cause to sue the Department of Education for their unionized public school education failing them so badly. Or alternately, they were fully aware when posting that it was pure BS – but it served their purpose to make those claims as their latest “BBBUUUTTTTT…. MUH TRUMP!!!!!” moment.
“The “American Oath of Office” is a reverred American tradition that carries with it no specific penalty, per se, for failure to comply. Presumably, if there is a penalty, it will be imposed in the hereafter. ”
U. S. Constitution, Article VI, paragraph 2:
“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
I, for one, would like to see that changed, and presumptive immunity eliminated, at least for clear and probably intentional violations of Article VI. The oath and/or affirmation to which you refer is fundamental to the Constitution, the doctrine of presumptive immunity is not, and is highly questionable. As to the objection that eliminating that doctrine would pose the problem of fewer people seeking government positions, my reply is “define ‘problem'”.
Could we not ask the same of Omar, Tlaib, Vallery Jarrett, Jeremiah Wright, and Soros? We don’t, because their anti-American stances suit the long range plans of the prog/left.
I’ve never watched the View but they did a great public service for us when Kamala Harris was asked what she would do different from Joe Biden. Her answer of “Not a thing” seemed to be the beginning of the end of her campaign as a serious candidate. The same people who could not see that Biden was suffering from dementia and did not mind that an unelected bunch of guys with lanyards ran our country for 4 years now scream about Musk.
Musk is an innovator and we are lucky that he lives in the USA. He’s done a great deal of good in his mere 22 years of citizenship. He’s probably brighter than all of the people mentioned in today’s article combined. They used to like him before he bought Twitter and allowed us all to see the manipulations and censorship that the Biden administration inflicted on us all. Even Zuckerberg has admitted the censorship, something I never thought we’d see since he helped get Biden elected.
Seems like mass hysteria to me. Maybe they didn’t read The Crucible by Arthur Miller about the Salem Witch Trials. It was required reading when I was a kid and really instructive when we discussed it in class and did out book reports. It also happens to be an excellent book if you haven’t read it:
Arthur Miller uses “The Crucible” to explore the fear and hysteria that pervaded American society during the Red Scare and the McCarthy era by utilizing the Salem Witch Trials as an allegory. The witch trials, another case of mass hysteria and fear, summed up the emotional state of the US during this period.
“They used to like (Musk) before he bought Twitter…” These same “They” USED to like Trump, especially his campaign donations – until he ran against and beat them at their own game.
When it comes to politics, the media have generally become irrelevant. The Internet and social media have replaced print and electronic media in providing up-to-date, reliable news and information. Even neighborhood chat groups where people track down lost dogs and cats and report good service from local vendors seem to be how the average person gets their news today. The “professional” media, what’s left of it, talk about each other and hold colleagues up to shame if they utter something controversial.
The Washington Post learned the hard way what happens when “people aren’t buying your stuff.” Let the Democrats and the media bash Musk and Trump; it’s meaningless. These apparatchiks are playing to themselves, not the audience. The audience, that is, the people, are unified behind Musk and Trump and have given them almost carte blanche to do what they said they would do.
Has anyone noticed that Trump is much less argumentative with the “crooked media” this time around than during his first term? This, I believe, is because he knows he has vanquished them one by one and there’s no need to double down on them now. His insouciance when it comes to the media reflects the public’s attitude. But, shhhhh, don’t tell the Democrats; they are headed for disaster and like Hemmingway’s bull, they are dead but don’t yet know it.
JJc-Well said
JJC,
I think Trump knows the best way to beat the MSM is to answer their question straight, and focus on his agenda. He does not need MSM. They need him.
Q: What country (s) was Biden loyal to?
A: Whichever payed him the most.
Full Steam Ahead Boys!
While there may be a Joseph Welch out there to face those people down, there is no one in the MSM that would allow such a thing to be seen
MAGA Voters BURN Trump Flags And LASH OUT At Musk
Sometimes such inquiries are necessary. Benedict Arnold, anyone?
Remember when the then GOP minority sent a letter to Iran stating the nuclear deal Obama was negotiating with Iran “could expire the moment he left office”?
Time for a tit for tat I think. Democratic legislators exercising their indispensible right!
Who are we fighting this week? Oceania, Eurasia or Eastasia?
Clarify what you’re saying. Remember the letter – no. Tit for tat .. by who/whom?
Dems should send Putin a letter telling him Trump’s attempt to sell out America and the free world to Russian tyranny may not survive an election cycle
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/gop-senators-send-open-letter-iran-undermining-white-house-nuke-negotiations
Not a Fan-remember that a treaty not confirmed by the Senate is not a treaty and basically has no real standing. The Republicans were letting Iran know this was how things were done in the US. Obama had clearly stated that he would not be submitting the treaty to the senate. It was also argued before the SCOTUS who confirmed the treaty was not binding on the states and citizens of the US. This was done above board and publicly.
Remember when Clinton/Obama/Biden/the DNC illegally hired a Putin FSB operative (under investigation by the FBI for espionage) to write their “Trump-Russia Dossier”, and then used it conduct police state fascism through the FBI using it?
While telling us they were fighting Putin’s stooge in the White House – and no, it wasn’t SecState Clinton and VP Biden?
Good times, hey!
Am I seeing this correctly, all the ragers are women in this article.
Yes you are. Surprised? lets add Reid and Madow. It’s to me sad that women are face of hate in America.
The last time I looked, Chuck Schumer was not a woman. Senator Schumer stood outside of the Supreme Court several years ago, and outside of the Capitol more recently, with his impotent rage expressing itself in the form of a temper tantrum that would do a three year old proud.
Many in our country, including teachers and elected officials, have devolved into people who believe that disagreement is cause for hatred and name-calling is a substitute for cogent arguments. In so doing, they demonstrate a failure to respect other people who may look or think differently from themselves.
For two generations, we have substituted indoctrination for education. We have failed to teach our children basic values like respect for other people, how to debate about ideas, and a basic understanding of our Constitution. We have also failed to teach our children such basic life skills as simple math (hence the folks who have no clue how to make change at the cash register). Instead, in place of math, science, and history we have taught sexual deviations and made-up pronouns. None of this bodes well for the future of our country.
Rejoice
If Oklahona gets their way soon religious schools can teach children people who disagree with them are going to Hell.
And at taxpayer’s expense too!
A whole lot better than teaching children they can wake up one morning and be the opposite sex. Or a cat. Or that pornography in elementary schools are good. Or question if they are a boy or a girl. And then help them “trans” and teach them how to hide it from their parents. Face it, the Democrat party has become the party of sickos.
“people who disagree with them are going to Hell.
And at taxpayer’s expense too!”
What is the fare these days ;?>
read up on Fascism…Democrats are fascists!
It sickens me to think that a bunch of bimbos on Tv is the source for American women’s’ political views. Oh woe is us.
Good Morning America. Bring on the clowns. Sit back, relax and watch the stupid show. They’ll be here momentarily…
We’ve arrived, non anonymously too!
The first fallacy right off the bat.
What you are implying is akin to suggesting that somene who pleads the fifth is guilty of something. I would reasonably expect someone interested in matters of constitutional principles to know better.