Don Lemon has claimed he cannot say why Elon Musk canceled his new show on X – in an interview with old employer CNN for the first time since being fired.
Sitting down with OutFront’s Erin Burnett Wednesday, Lemon, 58, fielded questions about the show’s abrupt nixing – after just one unaired episode.
The anchor’s old network even produced never-before-seen clips from the called off program, where where a visibly irritated Musk, 52, batted back questions about free speech and white nationalist conspiracy theories prevalent on the platform.
The short-lived series, called ‘The Don Lemon Show’, was scrapped shortly thereafter, leaving Lemon without a platform again.
He went on to outline the encounter in a scathing statement Wednesday, before providing more detail to Burnett. It served as the first time he appeared on CNN since his firing, during which brass reportedly paid him more than $24million.
Don Lemon – seen here in an interview with old employer CNN Tuesday – has claimed he cannot say why Elon Musk canceled his new show on X, as he returned to the network for the first time since being fired over remarks deliver on-air
The anchor’s old network even produced never-before-seen clips of the inaugural installment of ‘The Don Lemon Show’
The encounter, aired Wednesday at 7pm ET, began with Burnett asking outright about the show being called off.
‘That’s a good question for Elon Musk, quite frankly,’ Lemon responded.
‘What happened? I don’t know,’ he went on.
‘As I said in my statement, I felt really good about the interview.
‘I said to him as we were doing the interview – and it was tense at moments – “I think it’s good that people see folks like you and I who have different worldviews come together and talk.”
‘As he says, have free speech,’ he specified.
‘Apparently that doesn’t matter to Elon Musk.
‘It’s just for talking points for him – or rhetoric,’ Lemon continued, appearing stoic despite the cancelled contract.
‘Because it doesn’t seem to matter when it’s about him – questions about him. from people like me.’
He concluded: ‘Free speech is only important when someone you don’t like, or I would say someone who doesn’t have your same point of view… if they’re allowed to speak freely and to say their point of view.’
The encounter, aired Wednesday at 7pm ET, began with Burnett asking outright about the show being called off
‘That’s a good question for Elon Musk, quite frankly,’ Lemon said on CNN, nearly a year removed from his firing
Burnett went on to produce a clip that appeared to pertain to what her former coworker was saying, from an interview that lasted nearly hour and-a-half but will now likely stay, for the most part, unseen
Burnett went on to produce a clip that appeared to pertain to what her old coworker was saying, from an interview that lasted nearly hour and-a-half but could now saty unseen.
In it, Lemon is seen asking Musk – who since taking the reins of the site formerly known as Twitter has touted a desire for a platform with zero censorship – about hate speech and The Great Replacement Theory.
‘Hate speech ‘On the platform,’ Lemon began, seated opposite an attentive Musk. ‘[It’s] up.’
‘Do you believe that X and you have some responsibility to moderate hate speech on the platform, [and] that you wouldn’t have to answer these questions from reporters about The Great Replacement Theory as it released-‘
Musk immediately cut his host off.
‘I don’t have to – I don’t have to answer questions from reporters,’ he insisted, growing visibly irate.
‘Don, the only reason I’m doing this review is because you’re on the X platform, and you asked for it,’ he added. ‘Otherwise, there would, [I would] not do this interview.’
Burnett went on to air a tweet from Musk made days before, in which the outspoken South African complained about migrants changing the political climate of the US.
Burnett went on to air a tweet from Musk made days before, in which the outspoken South African complained about migrants changing the political climate of the US
Musk has made it his mission since taking the reins at X to create a platform devoid of censorship
‘Exactly,’ Musk wrote, replying to a post from an alt-right political theorist that claimed US officials’ counting of migrants in the census ‘incentivizes Democrats to continue the [migrant] invasion in order to build up power.’
He went on: ‘Increasing illegals boosts Dem voting power, causing them to recruit even more!
‘If Dems win President, House & Senate (with enough seats to overcome filibuster), they’ll grant citizenship to all illegals & America will become a permanent one-party deep socialist state.’
The statement is somewhat in line with the ideas of The Great Replacement Theory, which preaches that white European populations are being demographically and culturally replaced by non-white peoples – especially from Muslim countries.
The ideology – concocted by French author Renaud Camus in 2010 – picked up steam on then-Twitter prior to Musk’s takeover, before being censored by Musk’s predecessors.
Upon taking the helm in 2022, Musk made it his mission to create a platform devoid of censorship, before going on to allow such posts to be seen censor-free.
The far-right activist who made the assertion Musk agreed with, for instance, had been banned before Musk bought the website for $44billion.
Lemon revealed earlier in the day that his new X show has been canned by Elon Musk after the billionaire became ‘so upset’ by their unreleased interview
Obviously no longer the case, Burnett went on to ask Lemon if he believes Musk stands by those ideas, and if he felt that the tech boss realized the impact his tweets were having – citing the sites quarter of a billion daily users.
‘He didn’t quite seem to understand that he did,’ Lemon answered, before citing how the billionaire has faced accusations from the Anti-Defamation League and others of tolerating antisemitic messages on the platform since purchasing it – leading to a public apology and a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau with a rabbi, Ben Shapiro and a Holocaust survivor.
‘Originally he do that with Jewish people, the sort of a great replacement theory thing that he did with Jewish people,’ Lemon recalled. ‘And he had to go to Auschwitz and answer questions and apologize and go with Ben Shapiro.
‘But he doesn’t understand that that sort of rhetoric that he talks about the great replacement theory and a migrant invasion that’s what radicalized shooters, using their manifestos,’ he went on, pointing to shooters fueled by the white nationalist ideas, including New Zealand Mosque gunman Brenton Tarrant.
‘Those exact words,’ Lemon went on, pointing to Musk’s recent post,
‘The people who go and shoot up people, whether they be Latino people who live in Texas, or black people who are in a supermarket in Buffalo, or Jewish people who are worshiping those people use the same rhetoric that they are tropes, that they’re either racist for Latinos or black people, or for Jewish people.
‘And I wanted to know if he, if he felt any responsibility as someone who has the one of the largest social media information platforms in the world.
‘And it doesn’t seem that he feels that he has any responsibility with that, because he seemed really averse to facts – that facts did not matter to him. It didn’t matter that he retweeted things that were offensive to people.’
He concluded: ‘No accountability.’
urnett went on to ask Lemon if he believes Musk stands by those ideas, and if he felt that the tech boss realized the impact his tweets were having – citing the sites quarter of a billion daily users.
‘He didn’t quite seem to understand that he did,’ Lemon answered, before citing how the billionaire has faced accusations from the Anti-Defamation League and others of tolerating antisemitic messages on the platform since purchasing it – leading to a public apology and a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau with a rabbi, Ben Shapiro and a Holocaust survivor (seen here)
he doesn’t understand that that sort of rhetoric that he talks about the great replacement theory and a migrant invasion that’s what radicalized shooters, using their manifestos,’ he went on, pointing to shooters fueled by the white nationalist ideas, including New Zealand Mosque gunman Brenton Tarrant – seen here his sentencing hearing in Christchurch in 2020. He is one of multiple mass shooters motivated by the Great Replacement Theory. He killed 51
Hours before, Lemon took to his own X profile to slam Musk’s decision as an attack on his free speech, after which Musk countered by insisting Lemon is free to share his show on the platform ‘without’ censorship.
However, the Tesla CEO quickly added, ‘we reserve the right to make decisions about our business partnerships.’
Meanwhile, Lemon, after losing out on what was likely a lucrative contract, told his 1.4million followers of the ill-fated encounter: ‘We had a good conversation. Clearly [Musk] felt differently,’
He went on: ‘His commitment to a global town square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared seems not to include questions of him from people like me.’
‘Hardcore questions were asked,’ Lemon added in a separate post shortly after, declining to say what it was that angered Musk.
Journalist Kara Swisher, a contributor at New York Magazine, posited that the billionaire took offense to ‘questions about his ketamine use’, after insiders told the Wall Street Journal Musk regularly microdoses ketamine for depression and takes full doses at parties
Lemon – who went on to proudly advertise his return to the network where he spent 17 years later in the day – has yet to produce the full-clip.
The called off show’s first episode, for now, remains unseen.
