Don Lemon Returns To CNN To Share Elon Musk Interview After His X Partnership Was Terminated: “He Seemed Really Averse To Facts”

Despite his sudden firing in 2023, former CNN host Don Lemon returned to the network to share an exclusive look at his “tense” interview with Elon Musk that resulted in having his X partnership terminated just hours later.

Speaking on CNN to Erin Burnett, Lemon claimed he still doesn’t know why Musk terminated the contract.

“As I said in my statement, I felt really good about the interview. I said to him as we were doing the interview — and it was tense at moments … ‘I think it’s good for folks to see you and I come together and talk,’ as he says, have free speech,” Lemon recounted.

He added that he felt that the idea of freedom of speech was just “rhetoric” to Musk because “it doesn’t seem to matter if it’s questions about him from people like me.”

The first exclusive clip from the interview showed a tense exchange between the two, as Lemon questioned Musk about moderating hate speech on X. The clip showed Musk cutting Lemon off and stating, “Don, the only reason I’m doing this interview is because you’re on the X platform and you asked for it. Otherwise, I would not do this interview.”

Lemon then pushed back and asked the X owner, “So, did you think you wouldn’t get in trouble or you wouldn’t be criticized for these things?”

“I’m criticized constantly, I could care less,” Musk said in response.

Burnett and Lemon then discussed Musk’s public X posts that show him railing against immigrants, including his claim that “increasing illegals boosts Dem voting power” and will turn America into “a permanent one-party deep socialist state.”

“[Musk] doesn’t understand that that sort of rhetoric that he talks about — the great replacement theory and the migrant invasion — that’s what radicalized shooters use in their manifestos. Those exact words,” Lemon said. “I wanted to know if he felt any responsibility as someone who has one of the largest social media platforms in the world… and it doesn’t seem that he feels that he has any responsibility to that. He seemed really averse to facts.”

But he maintained that he kept his cool during the interview, despite Musk’s reactions to his questioning.

“I never raised my voice. I told him I think this is important for people to hear, especially considering the type of discourse we’re having in the country now. And he supposedly says this is a public square for all,” Lemon said. “Maybe we’re learning a public square should not be privately owned by someone who doesn’t think there should be content moderation.”

He added that he could tell Musk was “upset” and “uncomfortable” as the end of the interview felt “tense.”

“You and I do not agree on much but I will fight for your right to be able to say what you want to say. That’s what freedom of speech means to me,” Lemon told Burnett . “Freedom of speech, I guess, does not mean the same thing to him as it does to me.”

Despite the termination of their partnership, Lemon still plans to air the full interview with Musk as the very first episode of The Don Lemon Show, which he will share on YouTube, X, and other podcast streaming platforms.

The complete interview debuts Monday, March 18.