Subject: Re: NIH Resumes Funding of Grants
The document does not specify what Tesla vehicles will be purchased by U.S. officials, but Musk's Cybertruck, with its militaristic design and stainless steel exterior, could be an option.

There it is, that weasel word often employed by liberals as the predicate to make any criticism sound more legitimate. But alternatively such tactics "could" mean their argument is based simply on speculation.

I think maybe you're misreading the NPR article? The "could" in that sentence indicates that it has not yet been decided which model of Tesla would be purchased - whether it's a Cybertruck or a different Tesla vehicle. But the criticism being levied doesn't depend on which model of Tesla is purchased, but the conflicts of interests involved the State Department deciding to buy vehicles from Tesla in the first place.