Elon Musk spars with Bernie Sanders, offers to sell more Tesla stock Reuters -- Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk got into a spat with Bernie Sanders on Sunday after the U.S. senator demanded the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes.
Sanders wrote on Twitter. Musk responded by saying I keep forgetting that I'm still alive, as a jibe at the 80-year-old senator. The billionaire CEO who had already offloaded $6.9 billion worth of shares in the electric car company as of November 12 wrote, Want me to sell more stock, Bernie? Just say the word. Sanders' tweet came amid Washington's efforts to hike taxes for the super-wealthy.
U.S. Senate Democrats have unveiled a proposal to tax billionaires' stocks and other tradeable assets in order to help President Joe Biden's social spending agenda and close a loophole that has allowed them to defer capital gains taxes indefinitely.
A week ago, Musk said he would sell 10% of his shares if users of the social media platform endorsed the move. 57.9% of people voted for the stock sale.