Elon Musk's obscenity-filled outburst against advertisers leaving his X platform is more characteristic of toddlers than adults, commentator Kara Swisher said on CNN Thursday.
Musk, who is currently filing a lawsuit in a Texas court against liberal watchdog group Media Matters for reporting on his promotion of anti-Semitic content, stated at the New York Times DealBook summit that "If somebody's going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go f--k yourself. But go f--k yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is."
"Kind of seems like he wanted more of a reaction, so he tried it again with the audience there," said anchor Erica Hill. "Musk did apologize for endorsing the anti-Semitic post, calling it the 'worst and dumbest social media post' he's ever done ... I guess he got the chuckle on the second he was looking for in that statement."
"I guess," said Swisher.
"It's fascinating to me, though, as we watch this, right, and he's there on the stage, and he seems to really be enjoying the moment, we have this estimate that from The New York Times, I believe, that he's going to lose $75 million in revenue," said Hill. "And he's sort of saying, fine, we don't need you. But the business itself needs them, and they're going away because of what he did."
"Yes, yes, he's — let me just underscore for the audience, he's 52 years old," said Swisher. "This is a 52-year-old man who feels the need to say dirty words to make people shocked. It's just — it's bizarre and he caused the problem, and he wants to blame them for exercising their First Amendment right not to advertise on his terrible platform, I think. It's really bizarre. It was a bizarre performance. It was a meltdown. He seemed — he attacked Bob Iger, who was in the audience, the head of Disney, for just not wanting to advertise on him. It was so strange, and he's done it before. He's attacked advertisers when he first bought the company because he was frustrated, but again, let me underscore, he's 52 years old and the richest person in the world, and I'm sorry, he's — that's not how adults behave. It's how adult toddlers behave."
Watch the video below or at the link here.
Kara Swisher says Elon Musk is behaving like an "adult toddler" www.youtube.com
