We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

Starlink founder Elon Musk slammed the Biden-Harris administration on Wednesday for hampering Hurricane Helene rescue efforts.

According to Musk, the efforts would have been more successful had the Biden-Harris Federal Communications Commission (FCC) not revoked a Starlink grant two years ago.

“Had the FCC not illegally revoked the SpaceX Starlink award, it would probably have saved lives in North Carolina,” Musk tweeted Wednesday. “Lawfare costs lives.”

Look:

It’s his belief that the grant was revoked by the administration primarily because of his Republican-friendly politics.  Is he right? Probably. But first, it’s important to backtrack and explain a few things.

“In 2020, the [Trump] Federal Communications Commission awarded Musk’s Starlink an $885.5 million award to help get broadband access to 642,000 rural homes and businesses in 35 states,” according to Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist.

“Some 19,552 households and businesses in North Carolina would have had access to Starlink if they desired. Of the 21 worst-hit counties in North Carolina, the FCC-funded Starlink program would have served all or part of 17 of them, according to multiple officials,” she further notes.

The problem is that when President Joe Biden and his left-wing administration assumed office, they deemed it necessary to revoke the grant, presumably because of politics.

“The FCC suddenly canceled that grant in 2022, a few months before Joe Biden suggested that the federal government find ways to go after Musk, a former Democrat who began criticizing some of the Democrat Party’s support of censorship of and lawfare against political opponents,” Hemingway notes.

FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel, a rabid Democrat, argued without evidence at the time that Starlink didn’t have the capacity to provide the robust services it promised. Never mind that Starlink was already reportedly in “wide use” by many government agencies.

Her decision was opposed by fellow FCC commissioner Brendan Carr, a Republican who said at the time that the cancellation was “without legal justification.”

“[I]t will leave rural Americans waiting on the wrong side of the digital divide,” he warned.

Returning to the present, Starlink is now serving as a vital tool to help the victims of Hurricane Helene.

Now, to its credit, the White House has claimed it is deploying Starlink devices to affected communities like those in North Carolina.

“The White House reported that dozens of Starlink satellite systems were already deployed in North Carolina, and over 100 more were on their way to regions devastated by Hurricane Helene,” North Carolina station WRAL reported Thursday.

The problem, critics say, is that North Carolina would already have almost 20,000 Starlink devices had the grant been approved years ago.

Critics include Musk’s own mother, Maye Musk.

“The @FCC would rather Americans die, than approve a very inexpensive way to connect people in disaster areas. They should be ashamed,” she tweeted earlier this week.

Look:

But it gets worse, according to Hemingway.

“Joe Biden named Kamala Harris the Broadband Czar in April 2021 and placed her in charge of a $100 billion slush fund for broadband projects,” she writes. “The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program was supposed to fund programs in all 50 states. It has been a complete failure.”

“More than three years later, not a single rural American family or business has been connected to broadband through the program. At best the groundwork will begin four years after the launch and won’t finish until 2030 at the earliest. For that much taxpayer money, Starlink could be provided to 140 million people, and without the wait,” Hemingway notes.

Vivek Saxena
Latest posts by Vivek Saxena (see all)

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.