Don Lemon Says His Elon Musk Interview Has Been Suppressed by X | Exclusive

Don Lemon’s interview with Elon Musk has only 400,000 views since launching on X on Monday morning, and the host told TheWrap it is because the platform is suppressing the conversation.

“It would seem to defy credulity that if 21 million people engaged with my post on X announcing my new show, that only a few hundred thousand would be interested in the interview on X as of this afternoon,” Lemon said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

A representative for Lemon told TheWrap: “X is obviously suppressing free speech. Don’s interview was suppressed by X so less people view it.”

Lemon, whose show was cancelled by Musk just 24 hours after it was taped, said he could not verify the claim. But searches for the interview on X — including the term “Don Lemon Elon Musk” — turned up a series of insults against the former CNN host. The only way to view the interview was to click on Lemon’s official account, which has 1.5 million followers.

Here is an example of what the search turned up:

On YouTube, the interview similarly only received 200,000 views in its first 12 hours.

Musk and X did not respond to requests for comment. However, two official X accounts did respond to this story itself on their platform.

The conversation, released Monday, was supposed to debut the ongoing partnership between former CNN anchor Lemon and X. But Musk cancelled Lemon’s show just 24 hours after it was taped, claiming “it lacked authenticity.”

Lemon continued, “With that said, I’m grateful for every single person, on every platform, that is checking out the show, and I think we are off to a tremendous start.”

Lemon earlier said that he thought the pair had a “good conversation” — but “clearly he felt differently.” “His commitment to a global town square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared seems not to include questions of him from people like me,” he noted.

An individual close to Lemon said the actions of the social media platform were in total opposition to their much-trumpeted policy of free speech, and the company is merely acting on the whim of its billionaire boss.

Announcing the project in January, Lemon said, “My new media company’s first project is ‘The Don Lemon Show’ … It will be available to everyone, easily, whenever and wherever you want it, streaming on the platforms where the conversations are happening. And you’ll find it first on X, the biggest space for free speech in the world.”

Lemon was dismissed from a high profile role as an anchor and host at CNN in April 2023.

During the interview, recorded last week, Lemon quizzed Musk about the presidential election, SpaceX, race, trans and free-speech issues, as well as his alleged drug use and his upbringing, which appeared to make the billionaire uncomfortable, even though he had previously addressed these issues.

Less than 24 hours later, last Wednesday, Musk announced that Lemon’s deal with X had been scrapped. He wrote on X, “His approach was basically just ‘CNN, but on social media,’ which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying. And, instead of it being the real Don Lemon, it was really just Jeff Zucker talking through Don, so lacked authenticity. All this said, Lemon/Zucker are of course welcome to build their viewership on this platform along with everyone else.”

On Monday, Lemon noted, “Yes, after months of begging me, wooing me to offer some exclusive content on his platform, Elon Musk decided to scrap the deal, but our plan is and always has been to release this show everywhere.”

The former CNN anchor made sure to clarify that his conversation with Musk included “no restrictions, no ground rules, nothing off limits or out of bounds.”

The “Don Lemon Show” host posted the video across platforms, including X, and YouTube and taped an introduction in which he challenges the billionaire to watch and explain “why this isn’t what you claim you want on X.”

Lemon noted in his introduction that he’s not sure “what went wrong,” and that he hopes viewers learn something both about Musk and about himself, “two people who come from completely different vantage points on almost every single issue.”

The post Don Lemon Says His Elon Musk Interview Has Been Suppressed by X | Exclusive appeared first on TheWrap.