David Faber’s interview with Elon Musk devolved into a long, awkward pause after the CNBC host asked about his controversial Twitter posts and how they might affect his businesses.
“Let’s talk a bit about your tweets. It comes up a lot,” said Faber in an interview on Tuesday night, before noting that Musk had published tweets that have been accused of promoting conspiracy theories.
“Well, yes, but I mean honestly, you know… some of these conspiracy theories have turned out to be true,” responded Musk, citing the Hunter Biden laptop story as an example.
Faber asked, “But, how do you make a choice in terms of when you’re going to engage? I mean, for example, even today, Elon, you tweeted this thing about George Soros.”
“You said he wants to erode the very fabric of civilization and Soros hates humanity,” Faber noted, prompting Musk to say, “Yeah, I think that’s true. That’s my opinion.”
“Ok, but why share it? Why share it?” questioned Faber, as Musk made a puzzled face. “Why share it when people who buy Teslas may not agree with you? Advertisers on Twitter may not agree with you?”
Musk responded, “Freedom of speech. I’m allowed to say what I want.”
After Faber pointed out that some people were accusing Musk of anti-Semitism over his Soros tweet, Musk said, “I’m a pro-Semite, if anything,” before adding, “We don’t want to make this a George Soros interview.”
While Faber then moved on from the Soros tweets in particular, he stayed on the topic of Musk’s Twitter posts and asked the billionaire whether his controversial remarks could affect his companies and harm Twitter’s relationship with the advertisers which newly-appointed CEO Linda Yaccarino is trying to win back.
Musk sat awkwardly in silence for 12 seconds before making a bizarre comparison to The Princess Bride.
“You know, I’m reminded of… there’s a scene in The Princess Bride — great movie — where he confronts the person who killed his father and he says, ‘offer me money, offer me power, I don’t care,’” Musk remarked, to which Faber said, “So you just don’t care.”
Musk reacted by staring at Faber in silence for several seconds before saying, “I’ll say what I want to say and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.”
Faber then brought up Musk’s tweets about the May 6 Allen, Texas mall shooting, which resulted in eight people being killed, including three children.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Mediaite