Is Elon Musk Racist? Don Lemon Presses Kara Swisher
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What happened in Don Lemon's X interview with Elon Musk and why does it matter?
Hello, everyone. Welcome to The Don Lemon Show. The Digital Town Square is for everyone. That is what Elon Musk declared last summer when he first invited me and my colleague Rachel Maddow to join X. He said, quote, it would be great to have folks on the left put their shows on this platform, end quote. Now, first of all, Politically, I am fiercely independent. But putting that aside, we now know that Elon's sales pitch simply was just not genuine. Because I dare anyone, and especially him, to watch our conversation in full and tell me that our back and forth was not exactly what X is supposed to be all about. Our dialogue was tough, but it was fair. Occasionally tense, but never disrespectful. We both brought facts to the table to back up our arguments.
And I didn't press Elon on anything that he hadn't previously spoken about in public. The interview was precisely what Elon has long claimed that he wants to make a home for on X, a free exchange of ideas. We dug into serious issues, the nuances of the electoral college, the future of automotives, the complexities of DEI, even our own personal battles with depression. Did he really expect for me to simply lavish him with praise for an hour? If so, he could have sat down with Megyn Kelly or Tucker Carlson. But no, he opted to sit down with me, an independent journalist, to have a real conversation. I'm glad he did it. And if he chooses to watch the whole interview, he'll come to appreciate just how valuable our discussion was.
In fact, I hope every conversation that we have on this show is an open forum just like that. You can't have a public town square where its owner controls the microphone and the volume. Now, my next guest is the best person in the business to discuss all things tech and, yes, Elon Musk, the legendary journalist Kara Swisher.
Hey, Don. How are you doing?
I'm great. Listen, I'm going to get into your book very shortly. What's new?
Anything new?
Not much. Anything new? Anything happening? Nothing going on. Just, you know, an elephant in the room. And we're talking about the interview. So I assume that you saw it.
Of course, I watched the whole thing. I thought it was an excellent interview. I thought it was very fair. I think people watching it will be wondering why he threw a gasket over it. It was a very fair interview. I did understand what happened with him by watching the whole thing and watching his face, having interviewed him so many times. I think two things happened. One, he is so surrounded by people who kiss his ass all the time or lick him up and down all day that he's not used to any pushback whatsoever anymore. He used to be, by the way. This is not a new fresh thing for him to be pushed back on, but he doesn't like it at all anymore. That's one. Two, he's easily bored. I know it sounds crazy. I don't think you were boring.
I don't think your questions were boring, but he was bored. And so he got irritated that he had to ask questions or play word games with you. He did a lot of those, by the way.
Well, can I ask you... I'm sorry. I want you to get everything in. I'm just wondering.
Let me just finish. And then he got irritated that he had to pay you. He doesn't like media. And so he got irritated. He's like, why am I paying this guy for this bullshit? He didn't like your questions because they weren't sycophantic. And they weren't also, he likes a little bit of a fight. And you were being very fair, unusually fair. He doesn't deserve the fairness you gave him in a lot of ways.
You don't think so? Why do you say that?
He wasn't amused. Well, only because the stuff he was pulling out about slavery, everyone was a slave, or the studies. He tried to impugn everybody's studies, therefore making none of them cogent, right? Calling you not cogent, like questions not cogent, or I have time to go. Those are all his little tricks. Try to sort of put Fudd into it. But he was he was ultimately he was like, if you're not going to lick me up and down, I'm not interested. And you're not going to fight with me in some unfair fashion because because he likes that he wasn't interested.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What happened in Don Lemon's X interview with Elon Musk and why does it matter?
0:06–6:32
2
How does Kara Swisher explain Elon Musk's reaction and behavior during the interview?
6:32–19:49
3
Why do tech leaders claim to hate the media but still crave attention?
19:49–48:04
4
Did Elon Musk meet with Donald Trump and will he fund the campaign?
48:04–54:35
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Don Lemon Show
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