Batya Ungar-Sargon: Is Elon Musk destroying MAGA?

Batya Ungar-Sargon joins Emily to flesh out her recent argument that Elon Musk turned attention to Britain’s grooming gang scandal on X as a way to distract from his feud with populists like Steve Bannon over foreign workers. Batya explores whether Musk will be able to purge Bannon-style populism from the second Trump administration.

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[bcoxal]

Batya may be right about the pivot, but thank God Musk brought it up. More traction than ever, and maybe justice for the victims of the rape gangs.

[AHeroicDeath]

"it could never happen here" is I'm sure exactly what people in the UK said before it absolutely happened there.

[charliedarwin]

This is the first time I’ve been disappointed in Batya. For her to say she doesn’t care at all what is going on in Britain, that the story is 10 years old etc. is sad. I don’t disagree about Musk’s possible motives and the consequences for Trump, but to not express one word of horror about the ongoing depraved and brutal activities of the rape gangs is disappointing to say the least.

[BannedPhotoshop]

Batya is right about H1B visas, but it is hilarious how she argues that the grooming gangs in England don’t matter to America because “that’s a country thousands of miles away” while she simultaneously argues that America needs to send more billions in AID and weapons to Israel.

[sciencenerd]

People really need to stop viewing the right as a single mind. Anyone trying to manipulate the right should realize it's like herding cats. The right, in general, may agree on a lot of things...somewhat...but not everything. A lot of the right also enjoys a rowdy debate and has no issue with disagreement. I think any attempt to define the right, or what the right thinks is an exercise in futility. To accomplish that, you would need to interview every single member of the right. That would also be futile because any member of the right could change their opinion on an issue at any time given a logical argument to the contrary. But in spite of this, the right is very capable of uniting on a single cause and moving forward...albeit in a sort of messy organized chaos and be a power to cpntend with...obviously. The right is also capable of liking Elon a LOT and disagree with him on a lot of stuff.

[wealllivetogether]

Batya completely dropped the ball here. She purports to care about class discrimination, yet she callously tosses the brutalized daughters of working class folks under the bus in order to attack Elon Musk. I'm not a huge fan of Musk, yet I feel enormous satisfaction and gratitude that this nightmarish story is finally being given the attention it deserves. I've waited years for the mainstream media to honour the girls whose lives have been destroyed, and openly condemn the Pakistani Muslim men who preyed upon and violated their innocence.

[RomanMyshkin]

"Ask yourself why you're suddenly so invested in a 10-year-old case from another country" - This is something I find myself asking about my country's politicians regarding the Holocaust. (oh and btw, it's not a case from 10 years ago. It's an ONGOING case across the North of England to Scotland from at least the 1970s.)

[empoweryou]

If the H1Bs Musk is referring to, were for a select few of highly educated, uniquely skilled non-citzens, than I don't really have an objection with that position. If he doesn't care to make a distinction than I disagree wholeheartedly. Batya Ungar-Sargon has historically made the argument of the dangers of mass importation of low skilled aliens and how it undermines the American middle class, not a few uniquely skilled H1B apps. I need to learn more about the workers he fired and why before I go on the 'Elon hate wagon'. Unless I just missed it, neither Musk or Sargon seem to be addressing the distinction.

[BadMedizin]

Elon is trying to oust Keir Starmer and I hope he succeeds.

[barbaracovey]

What happened 10 years ago? It’s ongoing for 10+ years. About time it got some attention.

[gordon_bradley]

Pretty rich for Batya for lambast Elon on MAGA principles and at the same time advocate for continued funding of Israel regardless of the inevitably of it drawing us into another conflict in the middle east

[deborahdoucet]

Thank God for Elon working to finally get justice for the victims of the Pakistani rape gangs. I don’t care about his motivation. I care about the girls.The story is ongoing. It did not end 10 years ago.

[MrSkyydude]

Batya said back in the Israel Palestine debate that “the lobbyists get its power from representing what most of Americans think”. She’s lost all her credibility with me. Lobbyists get their power from having money.

[grahamstull]

Well done having her on the show, Emily. I think this is really the sort of 'undercurrent' reporting we need to hear.

[b.alexanderjohnstone]

Whatever case may be, we really needed the spotlight on these heinous crimes. I disagree with him on the H1 B1 issue, as it happens, but I believe he’s done good thing. Yes, it’s very longstanding with these gangs but it has never been debated openly as it should be. Personally I don’t want to discourage Elon. And BTW, it’s not just crimes from ten years ago, but an ongoing evil.

[Mortiel]

No idea who this Batya is, but it's pretty rich for her to talk about how informed she is on the topic of H1B visas, yet her tired talking points are nothing but propaganda.

1. H1B visas can be transferred to a new employer with a petition to USCIS. Using the salacious term "indentured servitude" is the instant red flag that this person is being inflammatory and misleading. I myself worked on a team with several H1B workers that were able to freely seek alternative employment, then ask our company to have the visa transferred. Even if the company did not, the employee would simply go back to their home country... Which is not what indentured servitude was like, for example, Irish immigrants coming to America.
2. The vast majority of H1B employees are entry level tech workers, which is filling a gap in our economy. It's not "taking our jobs". American engineering graduates either don't want or can't afford (especially in Silicon Valley) to work entry level engineering roles, wanting instead to jump to mid-level roles or work entry-level roles for mid-level pay. It's not entirely on the employee here... Between college expenses going through the roof and Silicon Valley being insanely expensive. But this also isn't on the employer exactly either... It's merely the market correcting itself from decades of overinflating tech jobs in Silicon Valley.
3. H1B workers are not contributing to inflation in any imaginable way. Our inflation is being caused by government printing money out of control to deficit spend for the past 50 years. The suggestion that any private business sector contributed to this is complete nonsense spawned from MMT delusions.
4. MAGA campaign promises were about illegal immigration and the open southern border. No mention was made about H1B visas because the number of H1B visas (thousands) is so tiny compared to the illegal immigration problem (millions).

Sadly, hearing no pushback from Emily to these nonsense takes, which is sad because I know her libertarian experience taught her better.

[thedelapo]

😂 two people who are not maga, talk about the inner workings of maga

[catteam]

I heard Batya's thoughts as a guest on Sky News with Rita. They were excellent and very well thought out. 💯🎉

[Objection-Yall]

My theory is Musk doesn’t always run his account and it’s someone that works for him. He gave someone else a lot of power at x that can change things at whim.

[Dakinisimo]

While I agree we should always be suspicious of someone as powerful as Elon, her statement that she doesn’t care about what’s happening in the UK is incredibly unintelligent, shortsighted and, frankly, appalling given the level of horror that unfolded (and I assure you continuing to unfold) in the UK, the EU and anywhere there are men following Islamic doctrines. Two things can be true at once: this may be Elon attempting to distract MAGA, and also we SHOULD take note of what happened in the UK so that we don’t repeat their mistakes here.