Kamala Harris Slams Biden for Snubbing Elon Musk at 2021 EV Summit: ‘Big Mistake’
Former Vice President Kamala Harris took aim at Joe Biden’s decision to exclude Elon Musk from a major White House electric vehicle event in 2021, calling it a “big mistake” that alienated one of the most influential innovators in American industry. Her comments come as the 82-year-old former president battles Stage 4 prostate cancer.
Speaking at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C., Harris said the administration mishandled the moment and let politics dictate a critical decision.
“I write in the book that I thought it was a big mistake to not invite Elon Musk when we did a big EV event,” Harris said. “Here he is, the major American manufacturer of extraordinary innovation in this space.”
The event in question, held in August 2021, brought together executives from General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis to promote Biden’s goal of making half of all new vehicles sold by 2030 zero-emissions. Musk and Tesla, the largest EV maker in the country by far, were left out. The White House at the time suggested it was because Tesla workers aren’t unionized.
“Yeah, seems odd that Tesla wasn’t invited,” Musk tweeted at the time. He later described the Biden administration as “not the friendliest” and accused it of being controlled by union interests.
In her new memoir 107 Days, Harris slams Biden’s move as short-sighted and driven by political loyalties instead of innovation.
“I don’t know Elon Musk, but I have to assume that that was something that hit him hard,” Harris said at the summit. “Presidents need to put aside political loyalties when recognizing technological achievement.”
The snub fueled years of tension between the Biden White House and Musk. Despite attempts to repair the relationship, including calls arranged between Musk and top White House officials, the divide grew. Biden infamously credited GM CEO Mary Barra with “electrifying the entire auto industry,” a remark that infuriated Musk, whose company had already delivered more than 100,000 EVs that quarter, dwarfing GM’s numbers.
By 2024, Musk had fully shifted his political support. He contributed nearly $300 million to GOP-aligned groups and bankrolled President Donald Trump’s campaign through America PAC. Harris acknowledged in her book that alienating Musk likely contributed to that political shift.
The former vice president didn’t stop at EV policy. She also criticized the Biden administration’s early legislative priorities, saying the White House focused too heavily on infrastructure and the CHIPS Act before addressing immediate needs like child care and paid family leave.
“When we made the decision as an administration to put the infrastructure bill and the CHIPS Act first, I actually think that was a mistake,” she said. “Very important work, no question, but we did that before putting the immediate needs ahead of anything else.”
Harris warned that voters felt abandoned as inflation soared and economic pressures mounted.
“If we can’t meet the basic needs of the people, there will be this backlash,” she said. “It’s not about hating the rich. It’s about survival.”
Her sharp remarks mark the clearest public break yet from the administration she served, coming as Biden faces a serious health challenge. The former president is undergoing a five-week course of radiation and hormone therapy for high-grade, hormone-sensitive prostate cancer.
On Saturday, Biden was seen leaving Mass in Delaware looking visibly frail, with aides saying he remains in treatment and is receiving regular care.
Harris’s comments highlight growing divisions within the Democratic Party over how Biden governed and what the priorities should have been. With Musk now firmly aligned with Trump’s populist right and Harris promoting a tell-all memoir, the rift between legacy Democrats and modern innovators appears wider than ever.