Kamala Harris criticizes Joe Biden for snubbing Elon Musk in 2021: Big mistake

Former Vice President Kamala Harris took a swipe at her onetime boss, Joe Biden, calling his 2021 decision to exclude Elon Musk from a White House electric vehicle event a “big mistake” — comments that came as the 82-year-old former president undergoes radiation therapy for prostate cancer.Harris, who appeared Tuesday at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C., said she believed the snub — which was widely seen as a political favor to organized labor — was mishandled and had lasting repercussions.“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 told Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell.“I mean, here he is, the major American manufacturer of extraordinary innovation in this space,” Harris said of Musk.The former vice president has made numerous public appearances in recent weeks to promote the release of her memoir, “107 Days,” in which she criticized Biden for his “recklessness” in running for re-election despite his declining health.In August 2021, Biden hosted executives from General Motors, Ford and Chrysler parent Stellantis to promote a goal of making half of all new vehicles sold by 2030 zero-emissions — but Tesla, the country’s top EV maker, wasn’t invited.At the time, then–White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the event featured “the three largest employers of the United Auto Workers,” pointedly noting that Tesla’s workforce isn’t unionized.Reporters pressed her on whether the lack of an invite was punishment for that.Psaki replied: “I’ll let you draw your own conclusion.”Musk, whose company sells more EVs than all three companies combined, tweeted then: “Yeah, seems odd that Tesla wasn’t invited.”A month later, he called the Biden administration “not the friendliest” and said it seemed “controlled by unions.”Biden’s White House at the time defended its outreach to Detroit’s Big Three, calling them k...