FCC Commissioner Slams Biden For Urging ‘Administrative State’ To Target Elon Musk
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Brendan Carr criticized President Joe Biden for encouraging the Democrat-run bureaucracy to go after billionaire Elon Musk in an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Friday.
The FCC recently rescinded a nearly $900 million award to Musk’s SpaceX to provide broadband internet for rural Americans in a move that Carr, who former President Donald Trump first nominated in 2017, alleges was politically motivated. This decision, along with numerous investigations into Musk, stems from Biden’s encouragement of scrutiny after the billionaire acquired Twitter in October 2022, Carr argued.
“The administrative state is very powerful right now in D.C. And it has been controlled by Democrats for approaching 12 of the last 16 years,” Carr told Bartiromo. “[The FCC’s decision] is belied by the fact that the U.S. government is entering into multimillion dollar contracts with Elon Musk, with Starlink, for high-speed connectivity when it matters the most — for military operations and otherwise — so it simply isn’t credible for the FCC to be claiming that they have concerns about this technology when other components of the federal government are leaning in so heavily.”
Shortly after Musk purchased Twitter, Biden stated that Musk’s relationships with foreign governments justified investigation.
“I think that Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries … is worthy of being looked at, whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate, I’m not suggesting that,” Biden stated in November 2022. “I’m suggesting that [it’s] … worth being looked at … that’s all I’ll say.”
The FCC stated its decision was because Starlink failed to display its capability to meet the requirements to provide services to over 640,000 homes and businesses in rural areas in 35 states with money from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) initiative. The commission has not replaced Starlink’s bid with any other companies to meet the requirements, according to Carr.
“The real loser is gonna be rural America,” Carr added. “Elon Musk is gonna be fine — the $900 million isn’t that big of a deal to him — but we had millions of Americans that were guaranteed to get high-speed service that now the FCC has taken that commitment, vaporized it and replaced it with nothing.”
The FCC previously rejected Starlink’s award in August 2022 because of it did not sufficiently show it could meet the program’s requirements. Starlink pushed for the commission to review the decision, but the FCC reaffirmed it based on a standard that has never been used before, Carr alleged.
Carr and the other Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington dissented while the three Democratic commissioners all voted to revoke the award, according to FCC documents.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Brendan Carr criticized President Joe Biden for encouraging the Democrat-run bureaucracy to go after billionaire Elon Musk in an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Friday.
The FCC recently rescinded a nearly $900 million award to Musk’s SpaceX to provide broadband internet for rural Americans in a move that Carr, who former President Donald Trump first nominated in 2017, alleges was politically motivated. This decision, along with numerous investigations into Musk, stems from Biden’s encouragement of scrutiny after the billionaire acquired Twitter in October 2022, Carr argued.
“The administrative state is very powerful right now in D.C. And it has been controlled by Democrats for approaching 12 of the last 16 years,” Carr told Bartiromo. “[The FCC’s decision] is belied by the fact that the U.S. government is entering into multimillion dollar contracts with Elon Musk, with Starlink, for high-speed connectivity when it matters the most — for military operations and otherwise — so it simply isn’t credible for the FCC to be claiming that they have concerns about this technology when other components of the federal government are leaning in so heavily.”
Shortly after Musk purchased Twitter, Biden stated that Musk’s relationships with foreign governments justified investigation.
“I think that Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries … is worthy of being looked at, whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate, I’m not suggesting that,” Biden stated in November 2022. “I’m suggesting that [it’s] … worth being looked at … that’s all I’ll say.”
The FCC stated its decision was because Starlink failed to display its capability to meet the requirements to provide services to over 640,000 homes and businesses in rural areas in 35 states with money from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) initiative. The commission has not replaced Starlink’s bid with any other companies to meet the requirements, according to Carr.
“The real loser is gonna be rural America,” Carr added. “Elon Musk is gonna be fine — the $900 million isn’t that big of a deal to him — but we had millions of Americans that were guaranteed to get high-speed service that now the FCC has taken that commitment, vaporized it and replaced it with nothing.”
The FCC previously rejected Starlink’s award in August 2022 because of it did not sufficiently show it could meet the program’s requirements. Starlink pushed for the commission to review the decision, but the FCC reaffirmed it based on a standard that has never been used before, Carr alleged.
Carr and the other Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington dissented while the three Democratic commissioners all voted to revoke the award, according to FCC documents.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
