Kara Swisher Condemns Elon Musk’s ‘Reprehensible’ Anti-Semitism: ‘What He’s Doing is Promoting Hate’
Kara Swisher called out Elon Musk’s recent grab for attention and naked anti-Semitism during a Wednesday night appearance on CNN.
CNN anchor Abby Phillip introduced the segment by noting how the multi-billionaire owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, is “once again making headlines for all the wrong reasons” before explaining how “Musk co-signed on an anti-Semitic and racist rant by a user on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“The post accused Western Jews of supporting, quote, hordes of minorities who essentially hate white people,” Phillip explained, adding, “Musk responded by replying to that post and saying, ‘You have said the actual truth.'”
Swisher gave Musk a bit of leeway, saying, “Sometimes people misspeak online, Sometimes they make mistakes,” and noting how the Israel-Hamas War has everyone a “little bit emotional right now” before explaining Musk’s petulance like a disappointed parent tired of their kid’s bullshit.
“There is a difference between free speech and speech designed to hurt people,” Swisher said, “and this is precisely that, just like he did. You know, Paul Pelosi’s trial is going on in San Francisco around his attack, and he ginned up a fake conspiracy theory right after this poor man was beaten with a hammer. He just wants attention, and he doesn’t care how he gets it.”
PHILLIP: Musk calls himself a free speech absolutist, but the problem is that this is not the first time that he’s actually used his own platform to amplify these hate messages. Yeah. When is this going to actually have an impact? I mean, this is a business, after all.
SWISHER: Well, it is having an impact. And I guess I’m sure Linda Yaccarino is is having trouble right now dealing with advertisers. She’s been going around trying to get more ads and try and improve the business. And then he does this all the time. He can’t seem to help himself. And that’s the issue, is he can’t stop now. Sometimes people misspeak online, Sometimes they make mistakes. Look, everyone’s a little bit emotional and people have said stupid things or over gotten overwrought, etc.. And that makes sense given the stakes that are happening here and the difficulties of watching a lot of this. But in this case, it’s a consistent behavior of him to do this and not just for a short time. And then everyone is surprised that he does it. And so I don’t know what to say is this is what he likes to do. He wants to create controversy. He wants to create attention to himself. He’s an attention sponge. And and and he’s saying sort of reprehensible things, especially in replies. That’s where he does it. So he gets in less trouble. But everybody sees.
PHILLIP: Everybody sees it. I mean, the other thing is, you know, you talked about everybody being really overwrought or whatever. And this is sort of pouring gasoline on a really hot fire right now and the role of social media in whipping up anger in this particular story on the Israel-Hamas war is really a big part of this. I mean, do you think that, you know, Twitter or X or whatever right now is indifferent to its role in, you know, hyping up these kinds of rivalries on both sides?
SWISHER: I think anything that calls attention to him is what he wants to do. I don’t think he differentiates between declaring a fight with Mark Zuckerberg and this. It’s any kind of attention you can get. He’s always in a permanent state of grievance. It’s always about him that this and this has nothing to do with Elon Musk, but what he’s doing is promoting hate. And there is a difference between free speech and speech designed to hurt people. And this is precisely that, just like he did. You know, Paul Pelosi’s trial is going on in San Francisco around his attack and he he ginned up a fake conspiracy theory right after this poor man was beaten with a hammer. He just wants attention and he doesn’t care how he gets it.
Watch above via CNN.
