After Tesla CEO Elon Musk made an offer to buy Twitter, a House Republican is suggesting that the platform could not get “worse” than it is.
During an appearance on Fox News on Thursday, Rep. Ken. Buck (R-Colo.) was asked to respond to Musk’s offer to buy Twitter.
“I think it’s a great move. I think that it will improve free speech,” Buck began.
He continued, “It can’t be worse than what’s happening at Twitter right now, so I think having a benevolent billionaire enter the fray is going to help. The real challenge, though, is to make sure we have competition across the board — Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, as well as Twitter — so I hope that this is the beginning of something positive.”
Watch the video below:
Rep. Ken Buck weighs in on Elon Musk's bid to buy Twitter:
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 14, 2022
"It can't be worse than what's happening at Twitter right now, so I think having a benevolent billionaire enter the fray is going to help." pic.twitter.com/zjwrdtPSLk
On Thursday morning, Musk revealed that he made an offer to buy Twitter.
In a letter to the chairman of the board of Twitter, he wrote, “I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.”
“However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company,” he went on.
The Tesla CEO shared:
“As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced. My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.”
Musk added, “Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.”
In a statement, Twitter said it would “carefully review the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the Company and all Twitter stockholders.”
When asked about Musk’s claim that Twitter “will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form,” Buck said, “I think he’s absolutely right.”
“I think that Twitter and Facebook and others are irreparably broken. And I think the real key here is someone like Elon Musk coming in and creating this free speech platform,” he explained.
Buck argued, “If an individual or a company controls the flow of information in a democracy, they control the outcome of an election — or at least they influence the outcome of an election.”
“So we need to make sure we have a number of Twitters or at least the right Twitter with an open and transparent platform,” he added.