Awkward moment Elon Musk tells Don Lemon 'you are upsetting me'

Elon Musk appeared to get upset after being forced to defend his “free speech” stance during an intense interview.

The billionaire X/Twitter owner has long spoken about his passion for keeping free speech alive, despite many examples to the contrary.

Since acquiring the social media site in 2022, Musk has continued to speak about this commitment and was confronted about it in an interview with former CNN anchor Don Lemon that was filmed earlier this month.

During the hour-long discussion, tensions ran high around the subject of free speech. The Tesla CEO was asked about specific racist and anti-Semitic posts that were still on the platform.

Musk argued the posts weren’t illegal and suggested, “So, Don, you love censorship, is what you’re saying”. When Lemon responded that he believed in moderation, Musk claimed, “Moderation is a propaganda word for censorship”.

Lemon steered the conversation towards Musk’s high-profile spats with advertisers who have chosen to withdraw from X/Twitter over anti-Semitic content.

The interviewer asked, “Why is that not a form of free speech? They are free to advertise where they want.”

Musk argued: “Whereas the other platforms will censor on behalf of other advertisers, the X platform will not.”

Lemon then questioned, “So you said if they kill the company it’s them (advertisers), but doesn't the buck stop with you?”. Musk responded by asking Lemon to “choose your questions carefully”.

Visibly rattled by the question, Musk said: “I acquired X in order to preserve freedom of speech in America, the first amendment. And I want to stick to that, and if that means making less money, so be it.”

Lemon asked Musk if he was “upset” by the question and the billionaire confirmed he was.

Musk said: “You are upsetting me because the way you’re phrasing the questions I think is not cogent.”

After its release, Lemon claimed his questioning upset Musk so much that he cancelled a whole new interview show they had been working together on.

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