It was raw and occasionally tense.
Former TV host Don Lemon's wide-ranging, testy interview with Elon Musk was posted online Monday morning and touched on topics including politics, particularly 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, which he now owns; and more.
The interview was intended to be the debut episode of a new talk show in a partnership between Lemon and The first episode of “The Don Lemon Show” aired on Youtube and published in Mr. Lemon's count in X.
In the interview, Musk said that earlier this month he was having breakfast at an unnamed friend's house in Florida when Trump arrived.
When asked what was discussed, Musk said Trump did most of the talking and that the former president did not ask for money or a donation to his campaign. Musk also said that he would not lend Trump money to pay his legal bills.
While Musk said he wouldn't donate to any candidate, he said he would consider backing one in the final stretches of the race.
“I don't know yet, I want to make a thoughtful decision before the election,” he said, noting that he was moving away from President Biden. “I haven't hidden it,” he added.
If Musk endorses a candidate, he said, he will give a detailed explanation of his choice.
Elsewhere in the interview, Musk insisted that he does not abuse drugs and discussed his prescription of ketamine for a “negative chemical state.”
“If you've used too much ketamine, you can't really do the job, and I have a lot of work,” he said. She noted that 16-hour work days were “normal” for him and that he rarely took weekends off.
Musk seemed visibly upset by a direct line of questions about his apparent endorsement of 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 journalists. Don, the only reason I'm doing this interview is because you're on platform Otherwise, I wouldn’t do this interview.”
Musk also appeared to dodge 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's not illegal, we're putting our thumb on the scale and being censorious.”
The show arrived Monday morning after a strong promotional push by Mr. Lemon, who teased the interview in several places last week. including “The View”, in the days after Musk abruptly scrapped X's partnership with the former CNN anchor.
Before its publication, the men disagreed about how the interview went.
mr lemon said in a statement last week that your questions were respectful and covered many topics. “We had a good conversation,” Lemon said. “He clearly felt different. “His commitment to a global marketplace where all questions can be asked and all ideas shared seems not to include questions about him from people like me.”
Musk, on the other hand, felt the opposite. In a post on X, Musk said Lemon's show lacked originality.
“Their approach was basically '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 financially support Lemon's program, Musk's decision to cancel the partnership surprised
In November, Musk boldly told advertisers not to spend on his platform, using an insult to dismiss them, and accused them of “blackmail” after they appeared to endorse an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about X, which Lemon resurfaced during Monday's show . . Musk's incendiary comments caused numerous companies to pause their advertising campaigns on X.
