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Barely a few hours after a report claiming SpaceX paid an employee $250,000 to settle a sexual harassment claim against company's founder Elon Musk, the billionaire not only denied the claim but also suggested a fitting ‘scandal name’ for the situation. The billionaire said that the attacks against him "should be viewed through a political lens." Additionally, Tesla CEO asserted that nothing will deter him "from fighting for a good future and your right to free speech."
Elon Musk quote-tweeted his own tweet from last year where he had suggested calling it ‘Elongate’ if there's ever a scandal about him. “Finally, we get to use Elongate as scandal name. It's kinda perfect," he wrote.
Musk’s suggestion to see the allegations from a “political lens" was made in an apparent reference to his changed voting preference. Earlier this week, the world’s richest man said that he voted for Democrats in the past but he will now vote for Republicans.
Earlier, Musk had tweeted, "the attacks against me should be viewed through a political lens – this is their standard (despicable) playbook – but nothing will deter me from fighting for a good future and your right to free speech."
Meanwhile, the billionaire took to Twitter late on Thursday to denounce as "utterly untrue" claims in a news report that he had sexually harassed a flight attendant on a private jet in 2016. Reuters
This development came following a report on Thursday by Business Insider which claimed that Musk's SpaceX paid $250,000 in 2018 to settle a sexual harassment claim from an unnamed private jet flight attendant who accused Musk of exposing himself to her.
The article quoted an anonymous person who said she was a friend of the flight attendant. The friend had provided a statement as part of the private settlement process, according to the article.
"I have a challenge to this liar who claims their friend saw me 'exposed' – describe just one thing, anything at all (scars, tattoos, …) that isn’t known by the public. She won’t be able to do so, because it never happened," Musk tweeted.
On Thursday evening, Musk first tweeted, "the attacks against me should be viewed through a political lens – this is their standard (despicable) playbook – but nothing will deter me from fighting for a good future and your right to free speech." In the initial tweet, he did not specifically mention the allegations in the Business Insider article.
"And, for the record, those wild accusations are utterly untrue," Musk added in another tweet. He also tweeted that the article was meant to interfere with the Twitter acquisition.
(With inputs from agencies)