New York Rep George Santos fired shots at Elon Musk after X, previously known as Twitter, provided additional context in a note below the embattled Republican’s incendiary tweet.
On Tuesday, Mr Santos posted a photo of himself on X with text over it that read: “They’re not after me. They’re after you. I’m just in the way.”
Below the post, a note from X stated: “They are in fact after Representative Santos, who is accused of stealing money from his own donors, among other offenses.” The note also included a link to the series of fraud charges against the congressman filed by the Eastern District of New York.
On Wednesday, Mr Santos acknowledged X’s addition, writing: “The way Elon came after my meme with that community note is abhorrent.” Mr Musk has yet to respond.
The New York Republican is due back in court this week over the host of charges against him. Although he was originally charged in May with wire fraud, money laundering, and other charges, a 23-count superseding indictment was filed earlier this month, accusing the congressman of stealing donors’ identities and using their credit cards.
He is expected to appear in court on 27 October.
The meme Mr Santos posted seemed to resurface the words once used by former President Donald Trump. Mr Trump posted a similar meme on the platform in 2019 that showed a black-and-white photo of him pointing at the camera with text over it that read: “In reality, they’re not after me. They’re after you. I’m just in the way.”
He repeated the same phrase after the federal indictment against him regarding his alleged mishandling of classified documents was handed down.
