Earlier this week, Ro Khanna, the California congressman, picked a fight with the vice president of the United States. It happened, like everything else, on X.
It centered around Marko Elez, 25, who had resigned as quickly as he had been hired by the DOGE because he tweeted “normalize Indian hate,” and “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity” as recently as September.
Then, because Elon Musk apparently likes to crowdsource decisions about government personnel, he took to X to ask his 217 million followers whether Elez should be rehired—and 78 percent of those who responded said yes.
That number included the vice president of the United States.
“I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts,” JD Vance tweeted, “but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life. We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back.”
Which prompted Rep. Khanna to reply: “Are you going to tell him to apologize for saying ‘Normalize Indian hate’ before this rehire? Just asking for the sake of both of our kids.”
Vance, whose wife, Usha, is of Indian descent, shot back: “For the sake of both of our kids? Grow up. Racist trolls on the internet, while offensive, don’t threaten my kids. You know what does? A culture that denies grace to people who make mistakes. A culture that encourages congressmen to act like whiny children.”
By the end of the back-and-forth, Vance was telling the congressman, “You disgust me,” and Khanna was left invoking the Lincoln-Douglas debates.
When I asked Khanna, whose district encompasses a chunk of Silicon Valley and is the wealthiest in the country, about the tangle, he texted back: “I made an argument in good faith to open dialogue, and it’s sad that J.D. decided to respond with a torrent of ‘own the libs’ toxicity. My belief is the country expects and wants a more honest, respectful and free exchange of ideas, and I am always happy to engage J.D. or others in that way.”