Tesla made an appearance on Capitol Hill Wednesday where the company was held up as one of several key American manufacturers during a bipartisan event on U.S.-made robotics.
Two Tesla humanoid robots were at the event, with onlookers crowding the machines as they struck various poses.
They waved their arms at times, and held up hands with two fingers aloft on each in a Richard Nixon-like pose. At one point, a robot’s arm swung out and hit the rope dividing it from the crowd, briefly sending a security guard scrambling to fix it.
Outside of Washington, however, Tesla car dealerships have been targeted by progressive activists across the country. The automaker and tech company is getting singled out for acts of vandalism over its founder, Elon Musk, and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts in the Trump administration.
House select committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., suggested Tesla’s appearance at the bipartisan event showed Congress rising above partisanship.
‘The competition is with China, and we are united in winning that competition,’ Moolenaar told Fox News Digital at the event.
He called Telsa ‘innovative,’ adding, ‘All the companies here have shown tremendous ingenuity, and we were pleased to highlight all of their efforts.’
The event featured bots from other events, including so-called ‘robot dogs,’ officially known as ‘Spot the Agile Mobile Robot’ by Boston Dynamics, and a similar machine by Ghost Robotics.
Moolenaar said Spot stood out to him in particular, as well as Tesla’s two robot humanoids that were present at the event.
‘It’s amazing technology, and what struck me was a lot of the same technology that’s in a vehicle is used in these humanoid robots,’ he said.
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., another member of the committee, said the Tesla robots could have ‘unbelievable applications.’
‘Maybe in agriculture — a lot of our farmers are going out of business, can’t compete labor-wise, right? You get a couple of robots that can actually do very detailed farm work and drive the labor costs down, we’ll save the American farmer,’ Gimenez said.
He also accused Democrats outside the event of having their ‘hair on fire’ over Musk and criticized Tesla critics who have been vandalizing its car dealerships.
‘Some people have taken things to an extreme,’ Gimenez said.
‘There is no need for putting down something that is advancing American technology and is going to be beneficial for America.’
The Trump administration has recently made moves to crack down on those vandals, with President Donald Trump himself threatening to jail protesters. The FBI, meanwhile, has commissioned a task force to look into the matter.