CNN host Michael Smerconish railed against Daily Show audience members approvingly applauding the recent vandalism of Teslas, claiming the “innocent car” had become a symbol of “misplaced hate” against Elon Musk.
On Saturday’s broadcast of his eponymous CNN program, Smerconish also said that the cheering reminded him of how some health insurance critics responded to the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
“The crowd’s reaction reminds me of those who cheered for Luigi Mangione after he was charged for the murder of a healthcare executive,” Smerconish grumbled.
With the car manufacturer seeing sales plummet worldwide amid Musk’s soaring unpopularity, “Tesla Takedown” protests have surged in the United States as demonstrators rage over the world’s richest man dismantling the federal government and firing hundreds of thousands of civil servants. At the same time, Teslas have been set ablaze at dealerships, and owners of the electric vehicles have been placed on a “Dogequest” doxing list.
President Donald Trump and his administration, meanwhile, have jumped to the DOGE chief’s aid. Besides vowing to charge Tesla vandals with “domestic terrorism,” Trump showcased the EVs on the White House lawn alongside his “first buddy” and the commerce secretary begged the public to buy Tesla stock amid the company’s plummeting market value.
At the top of his weekend show, Smerconish took specific aim at a recent Daily Show broadcast hosted by Jordan Klepper, which featured the studio crowd repeatedly cheering and applauding news of the Tesla dealerships, vehicles and charging stations being vandalized and destroyed. “Wow, you guys like petty acts of domestic terrorism, huh?” Klepper said at one point to the audience.
“An innocent electric car, once the symbol of proud progressives trying to save the planet, has become the focus of misplaced hate,” Smerconish noted. “The fight that they’ve got is with Tesla Motors owner Elon Musk and his Department of Government efficiency, which they claim is dismantling government, and that’s a nice way of putting it. Sometimes they call it a coup and Musk a Nazi.”
Adding that there is a worldwide Tesla protest planned for March 29 that will target 500 Tesla showrooms, Smerconish pointed out that social media posts declare that they will “send these techno-fascist broligarchs and old-fashioned Nazis a message loud and clear.” Saying that “some anti-Muskers believe actions speak louder,” the CNN host highlighted some of the destruction that has taken place before quipping that the use of Molotov cocktails proves that “gasoline and Teslas don’t mix.”
“And sorry if you thought that joke was in bad taste, but at least I’m laughing with Tesla, not the attackers. Contrast that with the Daily Show audience,” he continued before airing a clip from the Comedy Central show.
“The crowd’s reaction reminds me of those who cheered for Luigi Mangione after he was charged for the murder of a healthcare executive,” he observed, referencing the popularity — especially among young people — of the accused murderer of Thompson.
In a scene similar to the Daily Show’s applause for Tesla vandalism, Saturday Night Live audience members loudly cheered during a Weekend Update segment that featured co-host Colin Jost merely referencing that Mangione had been extradited to New York. “Yeah… definitely ‘woo.’ You’re wooing for justice, right?” a stunned Jost reacted at the time. Conservative media figures reacted with disgust to the SNL crowd’s reaction, calling it “shameful.”
After taking aim at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) mocking the plummeting Tesla stock price, Smerconish remarked that Trump and his attorney general Pam Bondi are taking the attacks on Tesla “seriously” and labeling them as “domestic terrorism.” He also brought up the president’s suggestion that Tesla vandals should be shipped off to El Salvador to serve 20 years in prison.
“Trump expresses himself in his usual unrestrained way, but behind the no-holds-barred response, there seems to be a point,” Smerconish said. “These attacks don‘t just damage cars and car lots and charging stations; they create an aura of fear for all who own Teslas or might want to own one. And that‘s how terror works.”
Smerconish’s harsh criticism of the growing protests against Musk and Tesla comes as right-wing media has been rallying to the tech mogul’s defense. Meanwhile, the mega-billionaire showed up for a highly sympathetic interview with Fox News host and Trump confidant Sean Hannity last week, prompting liberals to mock Musk for the “woe is me” appearance after he spent most of the time complaining about how much criticism he was getting.
