LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) – Tech mogul Elon Muskspeaking at a town hall Saturday night in Pennsylvania in support of Republicans Donald Trumpminimized the January 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol and urged his supporters to vote early in the swing state, while describing mail-in ballots as a “recipe for fraud.”

The freewheeling session in a downtown Lancaster hotel ballroom covered a dizzying range of topics, from space exploration and the Tesla cybertruck to immigration and the effectiveness of psychiatric medications. The town hall was part of Musk’s efforts through his super PAC to help bolster Trump in swing states ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election against Democrats. Kamala Harris.

Musk, who Trump has pledged to give a role in his administration if he wins next month, spent nearly two hours answering questions from attendees at the town hall meeting. While most were complimentary and covered a variety of topics, one was particularly singled out: One man wanted to know how Musk would respond to voters’ concerns that Trump’s election could lead to backsliding of democracy in the United States, given its role in the election of January 6, 2021., insurrection.

While calling the issue legitimate, Musk also said the Jan. 6 attack by Trump supporters had been called “some kind of violent insurrection, which is simply not the case” — a response which elicited applause from the crowd. law enforcement officers were injured in the attack, some beaten with their own weaponswhen a crowd of Trump supporters who believed his lies that the 2020 election was stolen of him stormed the Capitol to stop the certification of votes.

Musk also claimed that people “who say Trump is a threat to democracy are themselves a threat to democracy,” a comment that was also cheered by the crowd of several hundred people packed into the ballroom. . Many others watched the event on X, the social media platform Musk purchased two years ago.

Trump, he said, “effectively told people not to be violent.” While Trump did ask the crowd on January 6 to demonstrate “peacefully and patriotically,” he also encouraged them to “fight like hell” to prevent Democrat Joe Biden from becoming president.

Musk, the richest man in the world, committed more than $70 million to boost Trump in the election and, at events on behalf of his super PAC, encouraged his supporters to vote early. Yet, echoing some of Trump’s reservations about the method, Musk expressed his own doubts about the process. He said that in the future, mail-in ballots should no longer be accepted, calling them a strange anomaly popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic and raising the risk of fraud.

There is a number of guarantees to protect mail-in ballots, with various ballot verification protocols, including each state requiring a voter’s signature.

The January 6 question was an exception during the crowd exchanges during which Musk was repeatedly hailed as a visionary and asked for advice and thoughts on education, tug-of-war, tax loopholes and s ‘he would buy the Chicago. The White Sox. (He said he was a technician and had to pick his battles.)

Musk said he supports “soft” regulation of artificial intelligence and denounced “woke religion” as “basically a religion of extinction.” He said the birth rate in the United States was a major concern.

He said he believed Jesus was a real person who lived about 2,000 years ago and, when asked for the best advice he ever received, he replied: “I recommend study physics. »

He also called a woman on stage to hand her a large check for $1 million, part of his promotion to give $1 million a day to a voter in a swing state who signed the petition. his super PAC supporting the US Constitution.

The gifts are suitable for Josh Fox, 32, a UPS driver from Dillsburg, Pennsylvania.

“It’s cool,” Fox said, waiting to attend the rally earlier Saturday. “It would be nice to have it.”

Fox, which plans to vote for Trump, rejected any suggestion that the money could violate federal election rules.

“It’s about mobilizing support and mobilizing people who support the Constitution,” Fox said.

Mark Scolforo, Associated Press