Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro discussed his views on billionaire Elon Musk and the principles of free speech, specifically regarding Alex Jones, during an interview with Piers Morgan on Wednesday.
Shapiro recently visited Auschwitz, Nazi Germany’s largest concentration camp, with Musk, and interviewed the Tesla CEO for his show, “The Search.”
“Elon Musk is definitely not an anti-Semite,” Shapiro responded. “And for people who are sort of jumping on various Twitter comments to suggest that he is, I would suggest that you look at the full corpus of everything that he’s had to say on anti-Semitism, on Israel, on what’s going on in the world post-October 7. It’s very hard to come to that conclusion.”
Shapiro went on to discuss how Musk sometimes tweets what he’s thinking in real time, and then expounds on his thoughts to give people a fuller view.
“He sort of puts out whatever he’s thinking in the moment, unedited — that’s one of the benefits; that’s one of the drawbacks,” the conservative explained. “Very often, he will come back and sort of fill out exactly what he meant to say.”
“That also means that he’s considering things in real time,” Shapiro continued. “Interviewing him is really interesting in that way. You’ll ask him a question and, unlike most people who are asked interview questions, he actually sits and considers the actual question. He’ll take it in, and you’ll actually see him shift his opinion in real time as he processes the question. It makes him a fascinating person.”
Morgan revealed that he “courted” Musk for about a year to do an interview with him, but it fell through just two days before Morgan was set to travel to Texas and conduct the interview. According to Morgan, Musk sent him a clip of the host criticizing the Tesla CEO for permitting Alex Jones back on X, and told Morgan the interview was off.
“[Musk] said he lost all respect for me because I would do that, and the interview was summarily canceled,” Morgan told Shapiro. “So I never got the chance to interview him, which is a great regret, because I think he’s probably the most fascinating guy in the world right now.”
Morgan then asked Shapiro if he agreed that Jones should have been allowed back on X.
“So my general belief is that Alex Jones should not have been banned from Twitter in the first place, because he did not actually violate, on Twitter, their terms of service,” Shapiro responded. “My belief is that you should have a consistently applied set of terms of service.”
“I’ve actually never called for anyone to be banned on Twitter, including many people who despise me, hate my guts, and probably would like to see me dead,” he continued. “I actually don’t even block people on Twitter. Just on principle, I refuse to block people on Twitter. It’s also why, for example, I don’t delete old tweets — tweets that I disagree with, that I wrote in 2008, 2009; I leave those up for the public record. I tend to be in favor of radical transparency on X.”
.@benshapiro and @piersmorgan discuss Alex Jones: "Alex Jones and I do not get along… but my general belief is that Alex Jones should not have been banned from Twitter in the first place because he didn't actually violate on Twitter their terms of service." pic.twitter.com/hAd4Htci03
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) January 31, 2024
Morgan went on to say that he agrees with almost everything Musk has said and done, and called the billionaire a “force for good.”
“I totally agree with that,” Shapiro answered. “The world requires audacious thinkers. Elon Musk is an audacious thinker. The world requires people who have high aspirations for humanity. Elon Musk has high aspirations for humanity.”
“Having sat with him for a while, I think Elon is a person who likes to solve problems,” Shapiro said. “And if the problem is in front of him, he really wants to expend all of his energy solving it, which is why he will sleep on the factory floor of one of the companies he’s working with or starting.”
“The guy’s the wealthiest guy on earth, he certainly doesn’t have to go and sleep on the floor over at Tesla while he’s redesigning their product, or have to go sleep in the offices of X, as he did when he first acquired Twitter,” he said. “That is something that only a really dedicated person would do, and I think that’s beyond argument.”
“What Elon is trying to do, even when I disagree with him, is truly an audacious thing — it’s a deeply American ideal to shoot for the stars, and he’s literally doing that,” Shapiro said.
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