Elon Musk has given a controversial interview to a former CNN anchor Don Lemon in which he talked about a wide range of topics that spanned business, politics, Donald Trump, drug use by Mr. Musk, and online hate speech.
The interview was recently released online on Monday morning.
Dissecting Elon Musk’s Contentious Interview on Don Lemon’s Inaugural Show
The interview was supposed to be the debut episode of a brand-new talk show, which was a joint venture between Mr. Lemon and X, but it hit a roadblock with Musk calling the deal off a day after the hour-long interview was televised at Tesla’s headquarters in Austin, Texas.
The interview was streamed as “The Don Lemon Show” on YouTube and was posted on Don Lemon’s account.
Elon Musk revealed in the interview that he was having breakfast at a friend’s place with Donald Trump.
Musk said that the former U.S. President did most of the talking but did not ask for any donation for his upcoming presidential campaign.
He also said that he will not be helping Trump out to pay his legal bills.
Musk added that he will give donations to any candidate but did not rule out this possibility in the later stages of the race.
He did say that if this happens, he will give an explanation for making this choice.
On the question of drug use, Elon Musk vehemently denied it but did say that he was prescribed Ketamine for a negative chemical state.
He added that Ketamine will hamper the ability to work and he did 16-hour workdays.
The interview was smooth going until he was asked about his endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory on X, when Musk lost his cool and retorted back that he will not answer that question and the only reason why he was doing the interview was because it was on X.
He also tried to beat around the bush when he was asked about regulating hate speech on the platform and why some posts were not removed.
Elon Musk said that he is willing to remove something which is illegal, but not other contents if removal will amount to censorship.
The interview was heavily promoted by Don Lemon, and rushes were shown on different platforms including “The View” in the days after the sudden scrapping of the deal between X and the former CNN host.
Mr. Lemon, however, responded caustically after Mr. Musk annulled the partnership and said that all the questions were very respectful and covered diverse subjects.
However, he said that Mr. Musk felt differently.
He added that Musk was committed to the creation of a global platform where questions can be asked and ideas shared but negates the idea of someone questioning him.
