Elon Musk's bad week just got worse because Canada says there's something "suspicious" going on with Tesla!
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00:00Not too long ago, the news media would say things like Elon Musk and Tesla are on fire
00:05and they were acknowledging the brand's success.
00:08Now if they say Tesla is on fire, they are reporting the outrage that is sweeping North
00:12America.
00:13And now Canada is lighting a fire under Musk Car Company with a damning allegation that
00:17is worthy of investigation and I have the trending story for you next.
00:22Let's begin with a recap of the continued protest against Musk and by extension the
00:26Tesla Car Company.
00:28I've compiled two clips that show two very different points of view.
00:31First up, TMZ covers the destructive outrage and then Chris Matthews of MSNBC covers it
00:37through the lens of peaceful activism and resistance.
00:41Hot times these days if you are a Tesla owner.
00:44Perilous times.
00:45Really because the Tesla protests across the country are.
00:50And vandalism.
00:51Yeah, I mean there are peaceful protests and then there are these things happening because
00:57people are so upset about Elon Musk and his Doge mission.
01:05There's something really remarkable happening right now.
01:06I'm not sure people have really quite gotten their arms around this.
01:09We are seeing this organic bottom up movement against Musk's signature company, Tesla.
01:16Some activists just put up a website with a simple message, right?
01:19Sell your Teslas, dump your stock.
01:22And then an entire Tesla takedown movement has sprung up in response.
01:27They've got a map where all the protests are planned all across the country.
01:30It's been happening for about a month.
01:32This weekend alone there are more than a hundred protests planned at dealerships, Tesla dealerships
01:38across the country.
01:39From Brooklyn to Toledo, Dallas to Grand Rapids, Raleigh, dozens more.
01:43There are even, as you might see there, a handful planned in Canada and the UK.
01:47I'm going to tell you something.
01:48I wager next weekend there will be even more and the weekend after that more.
01:53Because this is growing every single day.
01:56It's not Democratic leadership in Congress organizing the protests.
01:59It's just everyday folks who are fed up and want to make their voices heard.
02:06And it's having an insanely outsized effect.
02:09I mean Tesla's sales are just cratering.
02:12The stock price has seen all of its post-election gains vanish.
02:15Musk's personal wealth has declined by more than $125 billion since the beginning of the
02:20year.
02:21That's because of this.
02:23By all accounts, this is not being funded by some big funder.
02:26It's a grassroots movement.
02:27Some people are organizing.
02:28They're putting up a website.
02:29And at any rate, it doesn't seem like those scare tactics are working.
02:33I would hazard they only make people want to protest more.
02:38Today hundreds of veterans and their family members and loved ones rallied near Capitol
02:41Hill in protest of Musk's cuts to the federal government, many of which target veterans
02:47who worked for the government and have been fired or are serviced by the government directly.
02:51This is just the tip of the iceberg.
02:52It's taken a little while for people to sort of understand what they're seeing because
02:57it's shocking and it's surreal.
03:00But it's just the beginning.
03:02I completely agree that we are at the beginning of a resistance movement, but I hope it takes
03:06a different form.
03:07And I'll share more about that in my wrap up.
03:09But for now, let's dive into the story of the day, a shocking Tesla scandal that is
03:13under investigation in Canada, as shared in this report by Crystal Ball of Breaking Points.
03:19Now amidst all this turmoil, there is a brewing possible scandal that has so far gotten little
03:23attention, but it could become a little more significant.
03:26Could also be a potential indicator of just how desperate the floundering company has
03:30become as pressures from a toxic leader, a stale product line and increased competition
03:35mount.
03:36Tesla is now being investigated for possible government fraud, not of our government, but
03:41of Canada.
03:42An irony to say the least at a moment when Elon is posturing like the ultimate warrior
03:46against government waste, fraud and abuse.
03:49And lest you think this is some sort of politically motivated witch hunt because of Elon's position
03:52in an administration currently waging economic war on Canada, take a listen to the facts
03:57from this local Canadian news report.
03:59A suspicious spike in Tesla sales has experts in the industry scratching their heads.
04:05It started with a deadline in January for Ottawa's rebate program on electric vehicles
04:09that allegedly prompted a mad rush to buy EVs.
04:14CTV's Adrian Gobriel has been crunching the numbers and Adrian, do they add up?
04:20Sandy, a spike in purchases was to be expected, though the reported sale of 8,600 Teslas equaling
04:27$43 million in rebates at four Canadian Tesla locations has sparked plenty of questions.
04:37In the West End of Toronto, this one Tesla location alone reported selling more than
04:411,200 vehicles on January 11th, totaling more than $4 million in rebates.
04:49So we paid them a visit to try and get some clarity on the staggering number of sales.
04:53How are you?
04:54Good, how are you?
04:55Good, good.
04:56My name's Adrian Gobriel.
04:57I'm a journalist with CTV News.
04:58There was a large increase in the number of sales processed through the EV rebate program.
05:04Just trying to get an understanding of perhaps what maybe some of the reasons were behind
05:08that.
05:09Is that a unique place or is that a backlog of paperwork going through?
05:14You can't share any comments?
05:17Is there any manager you think that might be able to?
05:20Our multiple emails to Tesla's headquarters have been met with silence.
05:24It defies logic that these corporate stores of Tesla and Tesla shareholders and Elon Musk
05:30would be able to sell 8,600 vehicles in a single weekend.
05:35There's something highly unusual about this.
05:37So to recap, Canada has been running an EV rebate program, which has been quite popular
05:42and quite successful.
05:43The way the program works is that when a customer purchases an EV, the cost of the rebate is
05:48originally fronted by the dealership, then the dealer receives reimbursement from the
05:52government.
05:53Now in early January, the government announced the fund was running low on money and might
05:57be suspended sometime in the next few weeks.
05:59And that is when four Tesla dealerships pulled off the biggest miracle since fish and loaves,
06:04somehow selling 8,600 cars in just three days.
06:09One dealership claims to have sold 4,000 Teslas over this period.
06:14Now that is quite a jump from the few dozen or so cars that they had previously been moving
06:18per day.
06:19I really got to see those morning sales meetings, I guess.
06:21I mean, are they hypnotizing the customers?
06:23Are they handing out tariff exemptions?
06:25Did they switch the complimentary coffee for pre-workout and crack?
06:29According to car scoops and basic math, this level of sales would have required each of
06:34these four Tesla stores to sell 30 cars per hour, 24 hours per day, for three straight
06:41days.
06:42Now if you scale the time back to the actual hours when the dealerships were even open,
06:46you would have more than one car sold every minute at each of these dealers across that
06:49three-day period.
06:50Insane.
06:51As one government official told the Toronto Star, quote, Tesla did not sell those cars
06:55that weekend.
06:56Now Tesla went on to claim $43 million in rebates, sucking up about half the remaining
07:01balance in the rebate fund, leaving other EV dealers holding the bag after they sold
07:06vehicles with the rebate priced in, expecting to get a refund from the government.
07:12When it rains, it pours, and it is pouring hard on Tesla right now, and we will continue
07:16to follow that investigation.
07:18As for the resistance against Musk being hyper-focused on Tesla, I really want to get your feedback
07:23on that.
07:24What do you think of the protest against dealers of the cars, the destruction of the cars,
07:28and the aggressive actions of intimidation against drivers that are being reported?
07:32Do you think this kind of protest is on target or misdirected?
07:36To that point, I want to share more from TMZ because they have an owner's perspective,
07:41but first I have one more question for you.
07:43If not Tesla, is there another form of protest against Trump and Musk that we can all get
07:48behind?
07:49Something that would put a dent in their attack on our democracy?
07:52I'm Dan, thank you for watching, and I look forward to your comments.
07:55You know, people really need to understand that, first off, Tesla owners, they are big
08:01enthusiasts of technology, sustainability, and their purchase decision isn't necessarily
08:07a reflection on how they may agree with all this stuff today, and people have purchased
08:12this two, three years, and I think even the senator you showed, his actually is really,
08:16I think it's like a 2015, 2014 model, so he bought that a long time ago, where now the
08:22model Y is the best-selling car in the world.
08:24But it's now a statement, for better or worse, we're out of time, but real quickly, you interact
08:30with thousands and thousands of Tesla owners.
08:32Are some of them talking about, you know, I love the car, but I got to get rid of it
08:36because it's too incendiary?
08:38Yeah, I think you're seeing it a little bit, but overall, the community is actually coming
08:42together and even stronger.
08:44We're going to be doing donut drop-offs to a lot of the various locations in the Bay
08:48Area, because again, you know, the Tesla employees are not Elon Musk, and so they're hardworking
08:56Americans trying to put food on their table, and so they being attacked is never OK.
09:02Violence is never OK.
09:03Peacefully protest, but don't attack people.