Conservatives are having a field day mocking the mainstream media’s blatant hypocrisy after Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., appeared to deliver a Nazi-style salute to California Democrats on Saturday night, yet received zero coverage from the same outlets that spent weeks attacking Elon Musk for an identical gesture.
The New Jersey Democrat was speaking at the California Democratic Party’s convention in Anaheim when he capped off his roughly 15-minute anti-Trump speech by placing his right hand on his chest before extending his arm toward the crowd with a straight arm and open hand above shoulder height – the exact same motion that sent the liberal media into hysterics when Musk did it in January.
“NEW: Democrat Senator Cory Booker appears to do a ‘Nazi’ salute in front of a large crowd of Democrats. I’m looking forward to the wall to wall coverage from the ‘honest’ and totally not biased media,” Trending Politics co-owner Collin Rugg posted to X, accompanied by footage of the gesture.
NEW: Democrat Senator Cory Booker appears to do a “Nazi” salute in front of a large crowd of Democrats.
I’m looking forward to the wall to wall coverage from the “honest” and totally not biased media. pic.twitter.com/6oHjYlKxEl
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 31, 2025
Conservative critics were quick to point out the glaring media silence surrounding Booker’s gesture compared to the feeding frenzy that erupted when Musk made a similar motion at Trump’s inauguration celebration at Capital One Arena.
“If Elon Musk is a Nazi for doing this gesture.. Cory Booker is one too. Sorry, I don’t make the rules,” X user Angela Belcamino posted.
Critic Matt van Swol posted a devastating list exposing which major news outlets completely ignored Booker’s salute despite obsessing over Musk’s gesture for weeks.
“Here’s a list of all the news networks who have not covered Cory Booker’s salute: – NYTimes – CNN – Washington Post – MSNBC – NPR – USA Today – Reuters – Axios – ABC News Every single one of them wrote stories on Elon Musk’s ‘salute’… …do you get it yet?” van Swol posted.
Musk himself responded to the obvious media bias, writing simply: “Legacy media is one big psy op.”
The Tesla CEO began sharing posts about Booker’s gesture around 9 p.m. EDT Saturday night and continued hammering the double standard on Sunday morning. In one particularly brutal post, Musk shared images showing Democratic leaders Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Hillary Clinton with their arms extended, captioning it: “We know where Cory Booker learned his Nazi salute from” along with a raised eyebrow emoji.
When Musk quote-tweeted a post about the incident and lack of media coverage, he added the caption “Legacy media lies.”
Brandon Straka, founder of the Walk Away movement, perfectly summed up the situation: “Same gesture. Different political party. Funny how that works.”
Other conservatives sarcastically adopted the same hysterical language Democrats used against Musk. “Cory Booker did the thing. This is literally the Third Reich all over again. These are the darkest days ever. Democracy is doomed,” one user wrote mockingly.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., also jumped into the fray Sunday morning, blasting Democrats and their media allies for the obvious double standard.
Further highlighting the absurdity and double standard of today’s mainstream media and Democrat Party – both of which are fundamentally broken.
This is the video from January with Democrats melting down with false smears about @ElonMusk
WATCH👇 pic.twitter.com/0C5xxOBV22
— Rep. Elise Stefanik (@RepStefanik) June 1, 2025
Booker’s team scrambled to defend their boss, with spokesperson Maya Krishna-Rogers claiming it was just an innocent wave.
“Cory Booker was obviously just waving to the crowd. Anyone who claims his wave is the same as Elon Musk’s gesture is operating in bad faith. The differences between the two are obvious to anyone without an agenda,” Krishna-Rogers told Fox News on Sunday.
When Musk made his gesture in January, he had been thanking the crowd for their support. “Thank you for making it happen. Thank you, my heart goes out to you,” Musk said while placing his hand over his heart and then extending his arm to the crowd.
The media’s treatment of Musk’s gesture was brutal and sustained. International leaders including Spain’s minister of labor and social economy and Germany’s health minister criticized the gesture, as did numerous Democrats who accused him of deliberately making a Nazi salute.
Interestingly, prominent figures in the Jewish community came to Musk’s defense at the time. The Anti-Defamation League wrote: “It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also defended Musk, writing: “@elonmusk is being falsely smeared. Elon is a great friend of Israel.”
Musk defended himself during the January controversy, posting that Democrats were playing “dirty tricks” and that “the ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”
Booker’s Saturday speech in California focused on attacking President Donald Trump and rallying Democrats to “stand up” against the administration.
Booker has a history of attacking Trump in the most extreme terms. He previously slammed Trump as “worse than a racist,” accusing him in 2019 of using “racist tropes” as “a weapon to divide our nation against itself.”