Return to Transcripts main page
Smerconish
San Francisco Chronicle: "Colleagues Worry Senator Feinstein Is Now Mentally Unfit To Serve"; Will Trump Endorsements Sway Voters?; Sorry Fringe, Musk Is Not Your Man; Elon Musk's $43b Bid To Buy Twitter; Should U.S. Veterans Joins The Fight In Ukraine; Kissing The Ring; San Francisco Chronicle: Colleagues Worry Sen. Feinstein Is Now Metally Unfit To Serve. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired April 16, 2022 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:25]
SMERCONISH: I think his favorite color is purple. I'm Michael Smerconish in Philadelphia. Happy Passover, Happy Easter everyone. I just bought my second Tesla. I was drawn by sleek design, concern for the environment, and a respect for the company's founder. Until recently I haven't thought of Elon Musk in political terms. Instead, I've admired him for his innovation and critical thinking.
But like everything else around us, he just became the subject of our partisan divide. In a TED talk this week, he suggested his bid for Twitter is all about free speech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELON MUSK, CEO, TESLA: If someone you don't like allowed to say something you don't like. And if that is the case, then we have free speech. And it's damn annoying when someone you don't like says something you don't like. That is a sign of a healthy, functioning, free-speech situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMERCONISH: His interest in acquiring Twitter now being heralded on the right and greeted with trepidation on the left. On Fox News, he was portrayed as a burr in the saddle of Silicon Valley progressives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STUART VARNEY, FOX HOST: To the far left Musk's desire to see the platform embrace freedom of speech and expression, well, that's a growing threat to their censorship agenda, their efforts to censor conservatives.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's have someone in charge who actually respects the First Amendment and free speech. So I think it's great.
TUCKER CARLSON, FOX HOST: So censorship and propaganda are at the very heart of neoliberalism. And Elon Musk is challenging all of that directly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMERCONISH: But there was this tweet from Max Boot of the Washington Post who said, quote, "I am frightened by the impact on society and politics if Elon Musk acquires Twitter. He seems to believe that on social media, anything goes for democracy to survive, we need more content, moderation, not less."
And I'll bet these competing narratives of Musk become self- fulfilling. In other words, when partisans hear that their polarized outlets are welcoming Musk's initiative, or resistant to it, they're going to fall in line like bots. But I think it's a mistake to cast Musk in red or blue colors. What do we know about his politics?
We know that in 2011, this is how he described his political ideology to the Atlantic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUSK: I'm sort of moderate sort of half, republican, half democratic. But I'm somewhere in the middle. I guess I'm sort of socially liberal and must be conservative. So I think a lot of the country is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMERCONISH: Then in July of 2018, he tweeted that he's, quote, "Not a conservative and registered independent, politically moderate, doesn't mean I moderate about all issues. Humanitarian issues are extremely important to me."
Shortly before the 2016 election, Musk told CNBC this about then candidate, Donald Trump.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
