Ro Khanna challenges Elon Musk to televised debate after online DOGE battle

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) questions U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as he testifies before the House Armed Services Committee April 29, 2026 in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC.

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Potential 2028 presidential hopeful Rep. Ro Khanna challenged newly minted trillionaire Elon Musk to a televised debate on the impact of cuts made during Musk's time atop the Department of Government Efficiency initiative, following an ugly social media spat between the Silicon Valley congressman and tech titan.

"I challenge him to a debate ... do it on CNN, do it on CNBC, do it at a university, he can pick the setting and let's debate what happened at DOGE, let's debate why I'm for a wealth tax," Khanna said Monday in an interview with CNBC. "We can have a conversation of ideas if he believes in free speech and free expression about these issues."

The challenge came in response to an intense exchange earlier Monday on the social media platform X — which Musk owns — where the trillionaire said Khanna should be sued or even jailed. The California congressman had previously said Musk needs to answer for potential deaths caused by DOGE's shuttering of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which prompted Musk's ire.

If it comes to fruition, it would pit the world's richest man against a rising contender for the White House in 2028 on a stage at a time when the Democratic Party is pushing new taxes on the wealthy and railing against billionaires.

"It's not pleasant to have the world's richest person with the biggest platform on X go say you should be in prison and that he's going to sue you, and then I'm a liar," Khanna said in the interview. "I'm taking on the richest person in the world, but I mean, I would hope that he would have an actual debate about it."

Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment placed via a spokesman.

The online fight between Khanna and Musk began early Monday, when Musk took issue with Khanna's recent citing of a study published in the Lancet that claimed cuts to USAID could cause the deaths of more than 4.5 million children. DOGE, led by Musk, effectively shuttered USAID as it tore through Washington last year in an attempt to downsize the federal government and root out alleged inefficiencies.

On a podcast on Saturday, Khanna said Musk "needs to answer" for the "4.5 million children around the world who he possibly sentenced to death by dismantling USAID."

Musk, replying to a New York Post write-up of Khanna's comments, said it's "Time to sue this liar."

"The standard applied by DOGE was very simple and easy: Provide contact information for the recipients of aid, so that we can confirm it is not fraudulent," Musk said in a later post. "The reality is that money was being sent to corrupt politicians under the guise of aid! Liars and stock insider traders like Ro the Robber should be in prison!!"

Musk followed up with a series of posts attacking Khanna.

The spat is not the first time Khanna has run into headwinds with his onetime allies in Silicon Valley. A number of his former supporters threatened to abandon him earlier this year after he embraced a wealth tax in California.

In the interview with CNBC Monday, Khanna noted that Musk at times has been supportive of him, praising a book he wrote and his opposition to Twitter censoring a story about former President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden.

Khanna said Musk "lost it" over his citing of the Lancet study.

But Khanna, who led a successful bid to release the Epstein files, said he doesn't plan to stop pushing against the wealthy despite representing one of the most affluent districts in the nation.

"The most important moral test for the Democratic Party right now is, are you going to fight the Trump administration effectively, and are you going to fight the oligarchy," he said. "And with my work on the Epstein files, and now calling out Musk, I have taken on those fights."

—Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.