Retired Gen Calls Elon Musk ‘National Security Risk’ on MSNBC: ‘Only Time I’ve Agreed with Steve Bannon!’

Ret. Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré told MSNBC that his criticism of Elon Musk as a “national security risk” has put him on the same side as Steve Bannon for the first time.

Honoré, who retired from the Army in 2008, joined Alicia Menendez, Symone Sanders-Townsend, and Michael Steele on The Weekend on Saturday to discuss a recent New York Times op-ed in which the retired general flagged Musk and his close connection to President-elect Donald Trump as a “national security risk.”

Honoré argued Musk is in a conflicting position as his businesses have such close ties to governments around the world and he is in direct communication with a number of world leaders, including in China, which has raised the biggest red flags with Musk critics.

“He is mixing politics and at the same time doing work with the government,” Honoré said. “And he is doing work with the government of China, which he is building cars there, 90% of the rockets that we shoot in the United States is coming off of SpaceX. His company, at the same time he borrowed $1.4 billion from China to build his automobile plant, and at the same time reports recently came out that some of the drones being shot at Ukraine had StarLink communications in them.”

The general added that none of his criticisms of Musk are new, noting it aligns him with some on the right, most recently Bannon. Bannon has been in a cutthroat back-and-forth with Musk over H-1B work visas, which Bannon strictly opposes and Musk supports.

“I am not the only one who showed concern. Going back, some of the influential people in the Republican Party, namely Marco Rubio, questioned the connection of Mr. Musk and the Chinese, as well as Vivek Ramaswamy, who also questioned his connection,” Honoré said. “All of that is the quotable stuff, and it is documentable, and you can Google it if you want to see their concerns. And most recently, and this is the only time that I have agreed with Steve Bannon, he has questioned Musk’s influence and capability and his connection with foreign leaders.”

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.