Sheesh, that escalated quickly.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a man who chooses to use a portrait of himself wearing a mask as his Twitter profile picture (which tells you everything you need to know about his mental state), reacted like an angry child today after Elon Musk absolutely owned him in a tweet regarding the state of Twitter’s rocky rollout of the new Blue verification process.
It started when Markey opined on the ongoing turbulence concerning Twitter’s new verification system, which Musk has repeatedly admitted was in the process of being fixed and polished. Markey proudly shared a Washington Post journalist’s account of how they managed to create a verified account impersonating Markey with little difficulty.
“A @washingtonpost reporter was able to create a verified account impersonating me—I’m asking for answers from @elonmusk who is putting profits over people and his debt over stopping disinformation. Twitter must explain how this happened and how to prevent it from happening again,” Markey tweeted, attaching a scary-looking official letter expressing outrage at the possibility of such an impersonation attempt taking place.
A @washingtonpost reporter was able to create a verified account impersonating me—I’m asking for answers from @elonmusk who is putting profits over people and his debt over stopping disinformation. Twitter must explain how this happened and how to prevent it from happening again. pic.twitter.com/R4r7p6mduP
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) November 11, 2022
As Musk is known to do, he responded with humor to Markey’s pearl-clutching letter simply by writing, “Perhaps it is because your real account sounds like a parody?”
The remark quickly drew out the lurking Democrats, who were quick to defend Markey before warning Musk, a successful billionaire entrepreneur, not to piss off a U.S. senator who happens to sit on several committees that could impact Musk’s various business dealings.
In other words, the message to Musk was, “Don’t trigger Markey, or he’ll come after you.” You know, like President Biden’s DOJ and FBI do to conservatives they don’t like.
A Twitter account called “People For Bernie” drove that threat home.
Probably not a great idea to troll a high ranking Senator with a history of taking down rich people who just so happens to sit on multiple committees which regulate your businesses the day after his party retakes the Chamber pic.twitter.com/EG3Geq8Lpp
— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) November 13, 2022
Musk, in his perpetual brilliance, immediately responded to the idea that he could be threatened for exercising his right to free speech.
“Are you suggesting the Senator will abuse his political power to attack me?” Musk replied, silencing the Bernie dullards.
Musk also hilariously called out Markey for his ridiculously asinine profile pic, which is a portrait of himself wearing a mask in 2022 when, as the president himself recently said, the pandemic is over.
“And why does your pp [profile picture] have a mask?” Musk tweeted, generating thousands of hilarious responses and virtual cheers as he faced off against the powerful Democratic senator on home turf.
And why does your pp have a mask!?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2022
But it wasn’t over, not by any stretch. The back-and-forth took a rather disturbing and dark turn.
Markey was apparently quite triggered that an American citizen would dare make fun of a senator and immediately mounted his Washington, D.C., high horse to use the full weight of Congress in a threat to Musk’s businesses in quite a detailed reply.
“One of your companies is under an FTC consent decree. Auto safety watchdog NHTSA is investigating another for killing people. And you’re spending your time picking fights online. Fix your companies. Or Congress will,” Markey huffed and puffed in his outrageously snooty reply.
Translation: MAKE FUN OF ME, AND I’LL COME AFTER YOU, PEASANT.
Conservative watchdog Tom Fitton provided one of the first replies to Markey’s pouty response, tweeting, “Leftist senator threatens an American citizen.”
Leftist senator threatens an American citizen.
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) November 13, 2022
“Wow, senator threatening a businessman?” another user wrote. At the time of this writing, there were presumably thousands of similar statements.
Clearly, Markey — like most Democrats — isn’t skilled at reading the room. In the wake of what’s happened under Biden and the obvious abuses of power the country has witnessed, for Markey to threaten to use Congress against an American citizen and his business either makes him incredibly stupid or downright scary.
While I have my own issues with Twitter’s current state, like a hacker taking over my personal legacy-verified account days before the election (I still don’t have it back), I have to say that watching Musk shut this clown down was the highlight of my day, and I look forward to seeing more of these interactions as Twitter steadily becomes fun again.
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