Elon Musk snapped at former CNN host Don Lemon over questions about hate speech on his social media platform, X, in an interview, as Musk argued he didn’t have to answer to reporters.
Lemon appeared on CNN to discuss the interview and showed a few clips from the exchange. The former CNN host asked Musk if he was responsible for monitoring hate speech on X and wondered if he wouldn’t have to answer questions “about the great replacement theory as it relates to Jewish people.”
Musk said he didn’t have to answer these questions.
“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 would not do this interview,” he responded.
X owner Elon Musk sat down for an interview with former CNN host Don Lemon. (Screenshot/CNN/DonLemon)
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“Do you think that you wouldn‘t get in trouble or you wouldn‘t be criticized for these things?” Lemon asked.
Musk responded, “I get criticized constantly. I could care less.”
Lemon announced on Wednesday that Musk canceled the former CNN host’s partnership with X over the interview the two did.
“Elon Musk is mad at me, and I just put out a statement about what happened between him, me and the interview that he is apparently so upset about,” Lemon said in a video.
Former CNN host Don Lemon interviewed Elon Musk. (Left: (Photo by Momodu Mansaray/WireImage), Right: (Photo by Grzegorz Wajda/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images))
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Lemon’s new streaming show had a partnership with Musk’s X, and the billionaire was also the program’s first guest. Lemon, who was fired from CNN last year, already taped the interview and detailed its future in a lengthy statement.
Musk spoke out about his decision to drop Lemon in a post on X and suggested he couldn’t drop his CNN “approach.”
“His approach was basically just ‘CNN, but on social media’, which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying,” Musk told an X user Wednesday. “And, instead of it being the real Don Lemon, it was really just Jeff Zucker talking through Don, so lacked authenticity. All this said, Lemon/Zucker are of course welcome to build their viewership on this platform along with everyone else.”
Don Lemon appears on CNN on Wednesday, March 13, 2024, to discuss his interview with Elon Musk. (CNN screenshot)
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“Elon publicly encouraged me to join X with a new show, saying I would have his ‘full support,’ and that his ‘digital town square is for all.’ He and his team pursued the deal in numerous conversations and made significant commitments about the support X would provide for the show. I made the decision to work with them in a unique partnership that I believed would ultimately assure that my work would be available to most people, in the largest possible venue. I took Elon and his management’s team’s word that they, for the first time, were interested in working directly with new and diverse voices,” Lemon wrote in a statement on social media.
Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.