Elon Musk, following outrage from the left and centrists about his temporarily booting certain journalists from the social media platform, ran a Twitter poll on December 18. In it, Elon asked whether he should “step down as head of Twitter” or remain as the CEO of the bird app. About 57 percent of the more than 17.5 million voters in the poll said “yes”, meaning that they wanted Elon to step down.
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022
Following the poll’s conclusion, Elon remained silent for a few days. Then, on the night of December 20th, Elon commented on the poll and said:
I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.
Many took that, along with the poll itself, to mean that Elon already has someone in mind as CEO and wanted an opportunity to make his appointment of whomever that might be as CEO a result of “democracy” rather than his executive fiat.
Further, Elon’s post on December 18th that “Those who want power are the ones who least deserve it” means that he likely won’t choose someone like Lex Fridman who asked to be made head of Twitter the CEO, as they want the power and thus, in his view, aren’t fit for it.
But while the Twitter CEO saga remains ongoing, Musk spent far more time discussing the Omnibus bill. In a series of tweets about the issue, Elon first said “Whether for or against, please let your elected representatives know what you think about this $1.7 trillion spending bill that they’re trying to pass!”
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He then followed that up with another poll and comment combo, saying “Should Congress approve the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill?” As of the time of this article, only 27 percent of those who voted in the poll said “yes”.
Elon, commenting on the poll to add his own thoughts on the matter, said “I’m in favor of a small spending bill to keep things running, but common sense suggests that it be the least amount required through the holidays. Railroading through a giant spending bill that almost no one has read is unlikely to be in the best interests of the people.”
He also hinted that bots were being used in an attempt to alter the outcome of the poll, saying “Bots incoming” in an earlier comment on it.
Further commenting on the issue in response to a tweet by the Hodge Twins saying “Not no, but HELL NO. They don’t even read it before voting on it!“, Elon said “Guaranteed, not one person voting for it has read the whole thing. If we added that basic requirement, legislation would improve dramatically in favor of the people.”
Indeed, as a series of tweets by Rep. Dan Bishop showed:
Did you know that the House of Representatives has an Office of Diversity and Inclusion?
It's set to receive nearly $26 million in taxpayer dollars. pic.twitter.com/UtJdg4jwKi
— Rep. Dan Bishop (@RepDanBishop) December 20, 2022