A prominent short seller who is suing Tesla and Elon Musk for stock price manipulation says the company would be better off without Musk as CEO.

Andrew Left, founder of Citron Research, told CNN’s Julia Chatterley on Tuesday morning’s “First Move” that it might make sense for Musk to have a more strategic or visionary role. Tesla (TSLA). He said the company could bring in someone else to manage day-to-day operations.

Left said that a few months ago it would have seemed like “the death of the company” if she thought Tesla might need someone else to run it. But Musk does he courted controversy like late Recently, Musk he smoked marijuana during a video interview and blamed the cavemen in the Thai rescue from the stuck football team as a pedophile.

Last week, Left filed a class-action lawsuit accusing Musk of securities fraud after he tweeted in August that he had “secured funding” for the plan. take Tesla private for $420 per share. Musk dropped that plan.

Left claimed the tweet was an attempt to “burn” short sellers who are betting against the company.

“Musk has a long-standing public feud with short sellers and often uses his personal Twitter account to mock and confront skeptics of his company,” Left noted in action.

On Tuesday, Left admitted that his short position in Tesla has been bad so far. The stock, despite recent volatility, has risen sharply over the past few years.

“Rumors of their deaths have been greatly exaggerated and reported many times,” Left said.

But Left told Chatterley that he thinks at the end of the day, Tesla will need more cash and will likely have to sell more stock to raise the financing.

That would be bad news for existing shareholders. Shares fell 2% on Tuesday and are now down more than 20% in the past month.

CNNMoney (New York) First published September 11, 2018: 11:54 am ET