Elon Musk told CNBC’s David Faber on Tuesday he doesn’t care if his inflammatory tweets scare off potential Tesla buyers or advertisers of Twitter.
“I will say what I want, and if the consequence is money loss, so be it,” Musk, the owner of Twitter, said.
Musk has been posting controversial material on Twitter for years, including conspiracy theories and comments that his critics have called generally discriminatory.
His defense came after Musk was again criticized for tweet in which he compared liberal billionaire and Democratic donor George Soros to villain X-Men MagnetoJewish survivor of the Holocaust.
“He wants to destroy the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity,” Musk tweeted on Monday.
Musk has previously criticized Soros, whose family office Soros fund managementrecently reduce your stake in Tesla. Soros, who is also Jewish, is a favorite target of right-wing pundits and politicians and is often subjected to anti-Semitic attacks. Soros and his family fled the Nazis during World War II.
Critics have said Musk’s tweets about Soros are in line with a broader pattern of attacks on the 92-year-old investor and Democratic donor. “It is no accident that Musk compares Soros to Magneto; this is a nod to the pernicious anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jewish global control,” he tweeted. Alex GoldenbergAnalyst at the Network Infection Research Institute. Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairsalso said that Musk’s tweets have “anti-Semitic overtones”.
Musk on Tuesday denied that he was an anti-Semite. “Anyway, I’m pro-Semitic,” he said when Faber asked him about the criticism. Musk also previously tweeted and deleted Hitler memes.
Faber also asked Musk on Tuesday why he tweeted a link to someone who said the Texas mall mass shooting earlier this month could have been part of a “bad psych op” or “psych op.”
Investigators were looking into whether the shooter, who was killed by police, expressed white supremacist views because he wore an “RWDS” patch, a reference to the phrase “right-wing death squad.” used by extremists. He also had Nazi tattoosincluding the swastika.
“I thought attributing it to white supremacy was nonsense,” Musk said, adding that he didn’t think there was any evidence that the shooter was white supremacist. “We shouldn’t attribute things to white supremacy if they’re…if they’re false.”
Since Musk took over Twitter last fall, the social network’s advertising revenue has plummeted as brands and companies have embraced changes to the platform, with some naming its outspoken new owner.
Last week, Musk hired former NBCUniversal advertising director Linda Iaccarino to replace him as CEO of Twitter, in what is widely seen as a way to jump-start Twitter’s advertising business. It started on Sunday.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
— Laura Kolodny from CNBC
