Elon Musk and Bernie Sanders Spar Off as Musk Sells More Shares of Tesla

Over the weekend Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk got into an argument with U.S. senator Bernie Sanders.

The argument, which happened on Sunday, came afteer the senator demanded that the wealthy pay their “fair share” of taxes.

“We must demand that the extremely wealthy pay their fair share. Period,” Sanders wrote on Twitter.

Taking a jab at Sanders, Musk responded by saying “I keep forgetting that you’re still alive.” He added, “Want me to sell more stock, Bernie? Just say the word.”

Musk has been offloading Tesla shares and has already sold a combined $6.9 billion worth of shares as of November 12th.

Earlier this month Musk tweeted that he would sell 10% of his shares if users of the social media platform endorsed the move. About 57.9% of people voted for the stock sale.

U.S. Senate Democrats recently unveiled a proposal to tax billionaires’ stocks and other tradeable assets.

In other news, JPMorgan is suing Tesla for $162 million in warrants dispute around Elon Musk take-private tweets.

The bank alleges that Tesla has breached the terms of a contract that the companies signed pertaining to re-pricing the warrants.

Tesla was supposed to deliver shares, or cash, if its share price went above a contractually set “strike price” by a certain expiration date, the complaint says.

Musk tweeted in August 2018 that he was considering taking the company private for $420 a share, and again when he rescinded the idea of privatizing Tesla a few weeks later.

JP Morgan claims it had a contractual right to make those adjustments, while Tesla said in a letter that they were “unreasonably swift and represented an opportunistic attempt to take advantage of changes in volatility in Tesla’s stock,” said the filing.

The complaint says, “In total, Tesla failed to deliver 228,775 shares of its common stock, leaving JPMorgan with an open hedge position equal to that shortfall.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.