Elon Musk’s mother Maye suggested her son sue CNN over a panel discussion that aired on the network this week focusing on a hand gesture the billionaire made during an Inauguration event for President Trump, an episode that has sparked widespread debate about his political rhetoric.
“I have been receiving so much hatred because of the [CNN] panel with [Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell] yelling about Nazi salutes,” Maye Musk wrote on X, the social platform her son owns, tagging the tech billionaire in her post.
“Please sue them,” she wrote to him. “Thank you [CNN political pundit Scott Jennings] for trying to intervene with the truth.”
Maye Musk was referencing a wide-ranging panel discussion that aired Monday on the cable channel during which Rampell and Jennings got into a heated debate over Musk’s gesture and other controversial comments he has made in social media posts and public remarks.
“I don’t understand why this guy keeps getting the benefit of the doubt, whether or not he believes this stuff, personally,” Rampell said, leading Jennings to call the outrage over Musk’s hand gesture “salute trutherism.”
“Why don’t you do it on TV right now if you think it’s so, so banal,” Rampell repeatedly encouraged Jennings to mimic the salute during the segment.
One of President Trump’s closest and most wealthy allies, Musk has been an outspoken critic of mainstream media for months and has said he wishes to see X replace news outlets as the primary information source “on earth.”
