Elon Musk took to Twitter late Thursday to make a crude, below-the-belt joke about the sexual misconduct accusations that surfaced earlier in the day in a Business Insider report.
The Tesla and SpaceX boss had been accused of exposing himself to a SpaceX employee and attempting to coerce sexual services from her while she worked directly for him, according to the report, and the company ultimately paid the woman $250,000 in exchange for her silence.
Characteristically, Musk took the opportunity to make a joke about his penis. “Finally, we get to use Elongate as scandal name. It’s kinda perfect,” the billionaire tweeted late Thursday, while quote-tweeting a March 2021 message in which he floated the term: “If there’s ever a scandal about me, please call it Elongate.”
In a separate tweet, the world’s richest man also blamed the negative media coverage on liberal bias since he has publicly distanced himself from the Democratic Party. “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,” he wrote, two days after calling the Democrats “the party of division & hate” and vowing to vote Republican in the future.
According to interviews and documents obtained by Business Insider, an unnamed flight attendant claimed that during a 2016 massage she was giving Musk aboard a SpaceX jet he exposed his erect penis, touched her thigh without her consent and offered to buy her a horse if she performed sex acts. After filing a complaint to SpaceX human resources department, the woman signed a nondisclosure agreement and received a $250,000 settlement, the outlet reported.
Musk also told Busines Insider that the report a “politically motivated hit piece,” and said “If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30-year career that it comes to light.”
Representatives for SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from TheWrap.