LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — Tech mogul Elon Musk, speaking at a Pennsylvania town hall Saturday night in support of Republican Donald Trump, downplayed the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and urged his supporters to vote from the start of the presidential campaign. ” while describing mail-in ballots as a “recipe for fraud.”

The freewheeling session in a downtown Lancaster hotel ballroom covered a dizzying range of topics, from space exploration and the Tesla cybertruck to immigration and the effectiveness of psychiatric medications. The town hall was part of Musk’s efforts through his super PAC to help bolster Trump in swing states ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election against Democrat Kamala Harris.

Musk, who Trump has pledged to give a role in his administration if he wins next month, spent nearly two hours answering questions from attendees at the town hall meeting. While most were complimentary and covered a variety of topics, one was particularly singled out: One man wanted to know how Musk would respond to voters’ concerns that Trump’s election could lead to backsliding of democracy in the United States, given its role in the election of January 6, 2021., insurrection.

While calling the question legitimate, Musk also said the Jan. 6 attack by Trump supporters had been called “kind of a violent insurrection, which is simply not the case” – a response which elicited applause from the crowd. More than 100 law enforcement personnel were injured in the attack, some beaten with their own weapons, when a crowd of Trump supporters who believed his lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him stormed the Capitol to prevent the certification of votes.

Musk also claimed that people “who say Trump is a threat to democracy are themselves a threat to democracy,” a comment that was also cheered by the crowd of several hundred people packed into the ballroom. . Many others watched the event on X, the social media platform Musk purchased two years ago.

Trump, he said, “effectively told people not to be violent.” While Trump did ask the crowd on Jan. 6 to protest “peacefully and patriotically,” he also encouraged them to “fight like hell” to stop Democrat Joe Biden from becoming president.

Musk, the world’s richest man, committed more than $70 million to support Trump in the election and, at events on behalf of his super PAC, encouraged his supporters to vote early. Yet, echoing some of Trump’s reservations about the method, Musk expressed his own doubts about the process. He said that in the future, mail-in ballots should no longer be accepted, calling them a strange anomaly popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic and raising the risk of fraud.

There are a number of safeguards to protect mail-in ballots, with varying ballot verification protocols, including in every state requiring a voter’s signature.

The January 6 question was an exception during the crowd exchanges during which Musk was repeatedly hailed as a visionary and asked for advice and thoughts on education, tug-of-war, tax loopholes and s ‘he would buy the Chicago. The White Sox. (He said he was a technician and had to pick his battles.)

Musk said he supports “soft” regulation of artificial intelligence and denounced “woke religion” as “basically a religion of extinction.” He said the birth rate in the United States was a major concern.

He said he believed Jesus was a real person who lived about 2,000 years ago and, when asked for the best advice he ever received, he replied: “I recommend study physics. »

He also called a woman on stage to hand her a large check for $1 million, part of his promotion to give $1 million a day to a voter in a swing state who signed the petition. his super PAC supporting the US Constitution.

The gifts are suitable for Josh Fox, 32, a UPS driver from Dillsburg, Pennsylvania.

“It’s cool,” Fox said, waiting to attend the rally earlier Saturday. “It would be nice to have it.”

Fox, who plans to vote for Trump, rejected any suggestion that the money could violate federal election rules.

“It’s about mobilizing support and mobilizing people who support the Constitution,” Fox said.