Kevin McCarthy cryptic after he’s spotted hosting Elon Musk for private meeting

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was not forthcoming with details after he met with Twitter owner Elon Musk in Washington on Thursday.

Mr McCarthy told a gaggle of reporters at the Capitol on Thursday afternoon that he has been friends with the embattled technology entrepreneur for years and that Mr Musk had visited to “wish me a happy birthday.”

Mr McCarthy is just weeks into his tenure as Speaker after a grueling battle to secure the nod from his caucus to replace Nancy Pelosi. Mr McCarthy ultimately won the job on the fifteenth ballot, persuading a number of holdouts from the far right Freedom Caucus to eventually support him.

Mr Musk has been dealing with his own challenges since being forced by a court order to buy Twitter late last year.

His handling of the company has enraged a number of its high-profile users and reportedly driven advertisers from the site, with Mr Musk making and then backing away from a number of changes to how the site functions.

Since buying the platform, Mr Musk has been fairly consistent about one thing: his support of the Republican Party. Mr Musk urged his Twitter followers to support Republicans in last year’s midterm elections and said that he himself voted a Republican ticket.