Rachel Maddow has no credibility.
If we didn’t have already have ample examples of it, we got more earlier this week, when she did a “report” on Elon Musk and the State Department allegedly trying to buy Teslas. We reported how she put out a story claiming Elon Musk–“top campaign donor of U.S. President Donald Trump”–had “convinced the U.S. government that it should spend $400 million on “armored Tesla production units.” She then sarcastically claimed this was “not at all $400 million worth of self-dealing by the president’s top campaign donor to whom he has handed the keys to the kingdom.”
Except of course, as we reported, it was 100 percent horse hockey:
In a statement to PolitiFact, the State Department confirmed Tesla isn’t in store for that money. The department said the Biden administration had pursued the possible purchase. Biden had signed an executive order in 2021 encouraging government agencies to buy electric vehicles when possible.
The department also said that specifying “Tesla” in the spreadsheet was an error. The statement said that only one company had responded to the offering, and that was Tesla, but that the spreadsheet should have cited a generic electric vehicle manufacturer rather than Tesla specifically, since it was open to any company. It described the bid solicitation as being on hold, with “no current plans to issue it.”
READ MORE: Maddow Attack on Musk Goes Down in Flames With Surprise Assist From Politifact
So, did Maddow correct her story and apologize?
Well, not exactly. If you ever want a model of how not to take responsibility for being fake, she’s a great example of it. While she said she referred back to the line item the next day, she acted as if she had said it was from the Biden administration; Maddow didn’t clarify that she never said that the day before. No apology, either.
Two nights ago Rachel Maddow falsely reported that Trump had given Elon Musk a $400 million contract for armored Teslas.
Did she apologize or retract? Of course not. Last night when her face was off screen she slipped in the fact that the contract was from last year during the… pic.twitter.com/hNJY74lbxb
— MAZE (@mazemoore) February 15, 2025
Then she still tried to taunt Musk about the amount of the line item and acted like she had caught him on something — for something that never even existed as a contract, and certainly didn’t even happen under or because of Trump.
“$400 million worth of armored Teslas! Tell me more, Edge Lord of government efficiency!” Maddow said, laughing like a crazy person. That cackling laugh is meant show everyone that somehow, she’s still in the right. How twisted can you be?
She did subsequently admit there was no contract, but still insisted it would be a “huge deal for Tesla” if they were expecting that they might be in line for such money. But why would Musk’s company be expecting it–if there wasn’t even any contract? It was ridiculous how much she kept trying to bootstrap the non-story into something, while never admitting how wrong/false she’d been on it and even after her “story” blew up on her.
That just shows how bad she is.
