Musk Emerges as Loudest Reopen Proponent With Tesla Threats (1)

Tesla Inc. asserts that restarting its operations in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t make the company an outlier, nor is it going against the grain.

Tesla’s assembly plant in Fremont, California.

Photographer: Sam Hall/Bloomberg

But its chief executive officer’s handling of the health crisis has been anything but ordinary. Tesla sued the county blocking its car plant from reopening, with Elon Musk calling the local health officer -- a former infectious diseases professor with a master’s degree in public health -- “unelected & ignorant.” He threatened to move Tesla’s headquarters out of California, warning that all its manufacturing may leave the state, too.

The weekend ...