Following Don Lemon’s difficult interview with Elon Musk – which led to the cancellation of their X contract – the former CNN anchor implied to tech journalist Kara Swisher that perhaps the sit-down was doomed from the start because Musk was “uncomfortable sitting in front of a gay Black guy.”
When Swisher joined Lemon’s show, she praised his interview with Musk as “excellent” and “very fair”: “I believe people watching it will be wondering why he [blew] a gasket over it,” Swisher said.
Swisher pointed out two reasons why Musk was upset with Lemon’s interview, one being that “he is surrounded by people who kiss his ass all the time … He’s not used to pushback whatsoever the way he used to be.”
“Secondly, he’s easily bored,” Swisher said. “It sounds crazy, I don’t think your questions were boring but he was bored and so he got irritated.”
Lemon noted, “People have been asking me what I meant by when I said he did not like answering questions or being held to account from people like me.” While Lemon says he was referring to their differing world views, “some people took it to mean a racial thing.”
“But since people raised it, do you think that he was uncomfortable? I didn’t want to go there. Do you think he was uncomfortable sitting in front of a gay black guy?” Lemon asked Swisher.
Swisher replied that Musk was probably more uncomfortable with Lemon being gay than black.
“I don’t think he likes control beyond himself and so it doesn’t matter who’s exerting it,” Swisher added. “I don’t think he much likes Joe Biden either.”
