In a candid reflection, former Vice President Kamala Harris labeled the Biden administration’s decision to exclude Tesla CEO Elon Musk from the 2021 White House EV Summit a “big mistake” during a recent interview with Fortune magazine.
The entire interview can be seen below, or scroll down to find the clip where Harris specifically talks about the EV Summit and Tesla.
In her memoir, 107 Days, Harris elaborated that sidelining Tesla, the global leader in electric vehicles, ignited a rift that had lasting political consequences. This acknowledgement marks one of the first times a senior Biden administration official has publicly admitted that the snub was an oversight.
“A President of the United States, I believe, has to put aside political loyalties when they get in the way of what should be a source of pride for us as Americans.”
The 2021 White House summit, intended to champion EV progress, instead sparked controversy by ignoring Tesla, which was already delivering hundreds of thousands of EVs quarterly.
Here is the clip where Harris addresses Musk and the EV Summit in 2021:
Kamala Harris Says It Was a ‘Big Mistake’ to Not Invite Elon Musk to the Biden White House EV Summit
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) October 17, 2025
“A President of the United States, I believe, has to put aside political loyalties when they get in the way of what should be a source of pride for us as Americans … I don't… pic.twitter.com/XY3W4qC8uL
The Snub and Elon’s Response
The exclusion had a lasting impact on Elon, who was largely apolitical in 2021. In a pointed X post at the time, he called the decision odd.
Yeah, seems odd that Tesla wasn’t invited
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 5, 2021
By 2025, Elon’s frustration over the snub was something that had lingered and grown, as seen in a more recent X post taking another jab at the Biden administration for crediting GM’s Mary Barra with “leading the EV revolution”, while selling under 500 EVs that year.
You will not find a better friend than me, nor a worse enemy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 11, 2024
Kamala Harris suggested that the snub was likely a turning point for the US administrations, pushing Elon towards his more vocal criticism of the Democratic party and his eventual support for the Republican campaign in 2024.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
The snub’s shortsightedness is clear in the numbers. In Q3 2025, Tesla delivered 497,099 vehicles globally, with over 195,000 of those within the United States. That meant that 50% of EVs sold in the US were Teslas - even after all the political fallout of Elon’s relationship with President Trump.
By contrast, GM delivered a record-breaking… 66,500 EVs in the same period, far from Mary Barra’s 2021 claim that GM would overtake Tesla by mid-decade.
GM CEO Mary Barra: “By mid-decade, we will be selling more EVs in this country (the US) than anyone else, including Tesla.”
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) May 5, 2022
GM sold a total of 457 electric vehicles in Q1 2022.pic.twitter.com/Lpbsw44WFl
Tesla’s consistent delivery of high-volume EVs since 2021, with hundreds of thousands of units delivered to customers per quarter, shows its dominance in the market, even as competition from legacy automakers and Chinese manufacturers has grown.
The summit’s focus on legacy automakers also ignored Tesla’s role in making EVs attractive from a consumer perspective. They made EVs affordable with range and looks that matched or surpassed their gasoline counterparts. They also made key innovations that recently led to TIME magazine announcing the 2012 Model S as one of the 25 most important innovations of the past 25 years.
Lasting Consequences & Looking Ahead
Harris’s admission suggests the snub had broader implications. By prioritizing legacy, unionized manufacturers that aligned with their policies, the administration alienated innovators, potentially delaying U.S. EV leadership in a globally competitive market.
While Harris’s reflection and acknowlegement is appreciated, the damage has already been done, to Tesla, the U.S., and the democratic party. This one event played an important role in what followed over the next four years.
