What Elon Musk said in a Testy interview about Don Lemon’s new show

It was raw and tense at times.

Former television host Don Lemon’s wide-ranging, thought-provoking interview with Elon Musk was released online Monday morning, covering topics such as politics, most notably the billionaire’s recent meeting with former President Donald J. Trump; Mr Musk’s reported drug use; hate speech on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that he now owns; and more.

The interview was intended as the debut episode of a new talk show in a collaboration between Mr. Lemon and X, but Mr. Musk canceled the deal a day after filming the more than hour-long interview at Tesla’s headquarters in Austin, Texas. The first episode of “The Don Lemon Show” was streamed YouTube and posted to Mr. Lemons account on X.

In the interview, Mr. Musk said he was having breakfast with an unnamed friend in Florida earlier this month when Mr. Trump stopped by.

When asked what was discussed, Mr Musk said Mr Trump did most of the talking and that the former president did not ask for money or a donation to his campaign. Mr Musk also said he would not lend Mr Trump money to pay his legal bills.

While Mr Musk said he would not donate to any candidate, he said he would consider backing one in the latter parts of the race.

“I don’t know yet, I want to make an informed decision before the election,” he said, noting that he was turning away from President Biden. “I have made no secret of that,” he added.

If Mr. Musk endorses a candidate, he said, he would explain his choice in detail.

Elsewhere in the interview, Mr Musk was adamant that he does not abuse drugs, talking about his prescription for ketamine due to a “negative chemical state”.

“If you’ve been on too much ketamine, you can’t really get to work, and I have a lot of work to do,” he said. He noted that 16-hour work days were “normal” for him, and he rarely took weekends off.

Mr Musk appeared visibly irritated by a direct line of questions about him appearing to endorse an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about X.

“I don’t have to answer these questions,” he said. “I don’t have to answer questions from reporters. Don, the only reason I’m doing this interview is because you’re on the X platform and you asked for it. Otherwise I wouldn’t be doing this interview.”

Mr Musk also appeared to sidestep questions about whether he had a responsibility to moderate hate speech on the platform, and why certain posts had not been removed.

“If something is illegal, we will remove it,” Musk said. “If it is not illegal, we put our thumb on the scale and we are censorious.”

The show arrived Monday morning after a heavy promotional push from Mr. Lemon, who teased the interview in several places last week: including ‘The View’, in the days after Mr Musk abruptly dropped X’s partnership with the former CNN host.

Before the release, the men disagreed on how the interview went.

Mr. Lemon said in a statement last week that his questions were respectful and covered many topics. “We had a good conversation,” Mr. Lemon said. “It was clear he thought differently. His commitment to a global town square where all questions can be asked and all ideas shared doesn’t seem to include questions from people like me.

Mr Musk, on the other hand, thought differently. In a message on X, Mr Musk said Mr Lemon’s show lacked originality.

“His approach was basically just ‘CNN, but on social media,’ which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying,” Musk wrote.

While X had initially agreed to the Mr. show. To support Lemon financially blindsided Mr. Musk to terminate the partnership with the salespeople at X, and it was the latest self-inflicted disruption to business operations at X in recent months.

In November, Mr Musk boldly told advertisers not to spend money on his platform, using a curse word to fire them, and accused them of “blackmail” after he appeared to endorse an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about brought up again during Monday’s show. . Musk’s inflammatory comments caused numerous companies to suspend their advertising campaigns on X.