Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently doubled down on his attack against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) in which he called the former astronaut and Naval officer a “traitor.”During a Thursday interview with Fox News host Bret Baier, Musk said he still viewed Arizona’s senior U.S. senator as a “traitor” because of his support for helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s invasion. The South African centibillionaire argued Kelly should “care about the interests of the United States above the interests of another country.”CNN host Erin Burnett invited Kelly onto her show on Thursday to let the senator respond to Musk’s attack. The decorated military veteran said that while he feels that Musk doesn’t necessarily deserve a response, he did take the opportunity to establish that his own background and motivation for government service was different than that of the tech magnate, who he described as an “unelected billionaire.”READ MORE: ‘It’s just that simple’: Rubio admits to jailing immigrants for their political views”I always stand with the best interest of our nation. And I will tell you this, Erin, standing with our allies and standing up for democracy is in the best interest of the United States,” Kelly said. “Who is Elon standing with at this point? A bunch of billionaires. It seems to me that some folks in the administration sort of switched sides here. I would put Elon at this point in the category of being much closer to Russia on this issue.””This guy is the second-most powerful person in the country at this point, and he’s firing veterans. He’s randomly firing government employees who did not deserve to get fired. He calls Social Security a Ponzi scheme,” Kelly continued. “He’s trying to create some room in the budget to give a big, giant tax cut to billionaires and multimillionaires … He’s an unelected billionaire, and I think he needs to stay in his his own lane, making rockets, making cars.”At that point, Kelly then noted that the Tesla CEO could be singling him out for a different reason, telling Burnett: “He also might be a little upset that I sold his car.”Earlier this month, Kelly recorded a video of himself standing outside of his Tesla, announcing that he was selling the vehicle due to its association with Musk, who he called an “a–hole.” Tesla’s stock has been on a steady slide in 2025, closing slightly above $273 per share on Thursday despite trading at more than $479 per share just three months ago.READ MORE: Senator schools Musk on ‘what makes America great’ after billionaire calls him a ‘traitor’Watch the video of Kelly’s comments below, or by clicking this link.