Twitter owner Elon Musk doubled down on supporting free speech during an interview this week, saying that he will say whatever he wants to say and he is fine if he loses money over it.
Musk made the remarks during a CNBC interview with David Faber when Faber asked him about the following tweet: “Soros reminds me of Magneto.”
Soros reminds me of Magneto
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 16, 2023
Musk doubled down on his comment Wednesday afternoon, writing: “I’d like apologize for this post. It was really unfair to Magneto.”
It was really unfair to Magneto
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2023
“You also said, you said he wants to rule the very fabric of civilization and Soros hates humanity,” Faber said.
“Yeah, I think that’s true, that’s my opinion,” Musk responded.
“Okay, but why share it?” Faber asked. “Why share it especially, I mean, why share it when people who buy Teslas may not agree with you, advertisers on Twitter may not agree with you. Why not just say, hey, I think this. You can tell me, we can talk about it over there. And you can tell your friends, but why share it widely?”
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“I mean, there’s freedom of speech. I’m allowed to say what I want to,” Musk responded, later adding: “I’ll say what I want to say and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.”
WATCH:
“I’ll say what I want to say. If the consequence is losing money then so be it.” — Elon Musk on why he isn’t afraid of speaking his mind, even in the face of threats and retaliation. pic.twitter.com/2dj2XuHcDk
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) May 16, 2023
TRANSCRIPT:
DAVID FABER: But how do you make a choice? You don’t see, I mean, in terms of when you’re going to engage. I mean, for example, even today, Elon, you tweeted this thing about George Soros. I’m looking for it because I want to make sure I quote it properly. But I mean, you know what you wrote but you basically—
ELON MUSK: I said he reminds me of Magneto. This is like, you know, calm down people. Let’s not like make a metaphorical case out of it.
FABER: You also said, you said he wants to rule the very fabric of civilization and Soros hates humanity. Like when you do something like that, the—
MUSK: Yeah, I think that’s true, that’s my opinion.
FABER: Okay, but why share it? Why share it especially, I mean, why share it when people who buy Teslas may not agree with you, advertisers on Twitter may not agree with you. Why not just say, hey, I think this. You can tell me, we can talk about it over there. And you can tell your friends, but why share it widely?
MUSK: I mean, there’s freedom of speech. I’m allowed to say what I want to—
FABER: You absolutely are, but I’m trying to understand why you do because you have to know it’s gotta there, it puts you in a, in the middle of the partisan divide in the country. It makes you a lightning rod for criticism. I mean, do you like that? You know, people today saying he’s an anti-Semite. I don’t think you are.
MUSK: No, I’m definitely not. I’m like, I’m like a pro-semite, if anything.
FABER: I believe that probably is the case.
MUSK: Yes.
FABER: But why would you even introduce the idea then that would be the case.
MUSK: I mean, it looks [like] we want to make this a George Soros interview.
FABER: No, god, no, I don’t want to at all. But what I’m trying, it even came up though in the annual meeting, I mean, you know, do your tweets hurt the company? Are there Tesla owners who say, I don’t agree with his political position because and I know it because he shares so much of it. Or are there advertisers on Twitter that Linda Yaccarino will come and say, you got to stop man or, you know, I can’t get these ads because of some of the things you tweet.
MUSK: You know, I’m reminded of a scene in “The Princess Bride.” Great movie.
FABER: Great movie.
MUSK: Where he confronts the person who killed his father. And he says, “Offer me money. Offer me power. I don’t care.”
FABER: So, you just don’t care. You want to share what you have to say?
MUSK: I’ll say what I want to say, and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.