Megyn Kelly ribs 'a**hole' former CNN host Don Lemon's spat with Elon Musk claiming he should have 'been more grateful' to Twitter billionaire for 'resurrecting his career'

Megyn Kelly has mocked her former CNN colleague Don Lemon for getting fired by Elon Musk before his Twitter show even began.

Lemon, who was dumped by CNN in April 2023 after allegations of misogyny, interviewed the Twitter owner for his episode, but the fallout was disastrous.

Musk reneged on the multimillion-dollar deal hours after the sit-down, where Lemon asked him about hate speech on Twitter and his drug use.

Kelly, a longtime Lemon adversary, spent 12 minutes on her SiriusXM podcast rubbing salt in the wound on Thursday.

'Don Lemon got fired again. He got fired, before he really got hired. It's very hard for Don Lemon to keep a job, and we know why,' she began.

Megyn Kelly has mocked her former CNN colleague Don Lemon for getting fired by Elon Musk before his Twitter show even began

Kelly gave Lemon a modest amount of credit for being in the awkward position of trying to do a proper interview with that man who hired him. 

'Don't interview your boss, that is the lesson that came out of his hot mess,' she said.

'It's very hard for Don Lemon in this position to both be a good journalist and be a good employee - the man's paying your salary so you do owe him a level of respect and discretion. 

'But at the same time you want to prove to us, in your first interview back, how hard-hitting you are, and those two goals are not aligned.'

But Kelly still have very little sympathy for Lemon's fate, saying she 'doesn't blame' Musk for being incensed by the interview.

'Don Lemon behaved like an a**hole who was not grateful to Elon Musk for resurrecting his career,' she said.

Kelly then played one of the few clips released from the interview where Lemon asked Musk about policing hate speech on Twitter.

After the clip aired, Lemon said that he wouldn't have brought up the drug use had Musk not already admitted to it 

Musk reneged on the multimillion-dollar deal hours after the sit-down, where Lemon asked him about hate speech on Twitter and his drug use

Musk said he didn't have to answer such questions and only gave him the interview because he was working for Twitter.

Kelly then claimed Lemon should have asked Musk about 'how great X is doing' instead of 'being partisan' with negative questions.

Twitter lost 13 per cent of its active users in the first year after Musk's $44 billion takeover in October 2022 and revenue fell 22 per cent to $3.4 billion.

Kelly played another clip where Lemon explained in a CNN interview that he asked Musk about Twitter users and hate speech because rhetoric like 'migrant invasion' and the white supremacist 'great replacement theory' were in the manifestos of mass shooters.

The 'Great Replacement Theory' preaches that white European populations are being demographically and culturally replaced by non-white peoples - especially from Muslim countries. 

Brenton Tarrant, who shot dead 51 Muslims in a New Zealand mosque in 2019, was heavily influenced by it before his rampage.

One of Kelly's guests suggested Lemon's plan all along was to get fired as a publicity stunt, but she said 'I really think you overestimate his (Lemon's) intelligence'.

'You're not the victim, you're not a victim in any way. And yet he continues to escape consequence - CNN says "you're fired because you turned out to be a misogynist, in our view", and he plays the victim there,' Kelly said.

'Now this happens, and he says I've been victimized again, [Musk] doesn't like diverse people... he's reveling in "poor me and my millions".'

CNN aired footage showing Lemon asking Musk about his recreational use of horse tranquilizer ketamine 

During a bizarre interview with the network that unceremoniously fired him, Lemon spoke in detail about his interview with Musk, revealing the pair spoke about drug use, supporting Trump, and white supremacy.

When asked why the show was canceled, Lemon told former colleague Erin Burnett: 'That's a good question for Elon Musk, quite franklin. What happened? I don't know. As I said in my statement, I felt really good about the interview.'

While Lemon claims he is clueless over why Musk became 'so upset' by the interview, the billionaire countered that he canned the show after finding Lemon's approach was 'basically just CNN, but on social media.'

'And, instead of it being the real Don Lemon, it was really just Jeff Zucker talking through Don, so lacked authenticity,' he wrote on Twitter. 

In the clips that have surfaced from the piece, which Lemon described as 'tense at moments,' the pair covered a wide-range of topics, including Musk's use of drugs, his lack of support for Joe Biden and issues over moderation at X.  

CNN aired footage showing Lemon asking Musk about his recreational use of horse tranquilizer ketamine. 

The Tesla founder's use of the drug has been widely reported on and he himself has admitted to taking it. 

'The reason I mentioned ketamine with prescription on the X platform is because I thought: "Maybe this is something that could help other people." That's why I mentioned it. 

'Obviously I'm not a doctor but I would say that if someone has depression issues, they should consider talking to their doctor about ketamine.'

Burnett went on to air a tweet from Musk made days before, in which the outspoken South African complained about migrants changing the political climate of the US

After the clip aired, Lemon said that he wouldn't have brought up the drug use had Musk not already admitted to it, in the wake of a Wall Street Journal expose that accused him of micro dosing at work and full dosing while partying. 

In another exchange, Musk described his recent meeting with ex-President Donald Trump in Florida.

Musk said that he was having breakfast at a friends' home when Trump happened to stop by. 'He did most of the talking,' Musk joked. 

Lemon pressed Musk by asking him if he would be paying any of Trump's legal bills and asking if the Republican nominee asked for any money, including a political donation. Musk said no. 

Lemon then asked if Musk was leaning towards wither Trump or Biden ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Musk said his only 'lean' was 'away from Biden.' 

The interview became tense when Lemon asked Musk about moderation amid the rise in hate speech since the SpaceX founder took over Twitter in October 2022. 

Musk has long championed the platform as a  'digital town square.' The billionaire earned huge criticism when he responded to a post endorsing the white supremacist 'great replacement theory.'

Musk stressed that he didn't need to answer questions about his endorsement of the theory. 'Don, the only reason I'm doing this interview is because you're on the X platform and you asked for it.' 

'I'm criticized constantly, I could care less,' he added.

 The short-lived series, called 'The Don Lemon Show,' was scrapped shortly after the interview was filmed, leaving Lemon without a platform again.

Lemon went on to outline the encounter in a scathing statement Wednesday, before providing more detail to Burnett. 

It served as the first time he appeared on CNN since his firing, during which brass reportedly paid him more than $24million.

'As I said in my statement, I felt really good about the interview,' Lemon told Burnett.

'I said to him as we were doing the interview - and it was tense at moments - "I think it's good that people see folks like you and I who have different worldviews come together and talk."

'As he says, have free speech,' he specified.

'Apparently that doesn't matter to Elon Musk. 

'It's just for talking points for him - or rhetoric,' Lemon continued, appearing stoic despite the cancelled contract.

'Because it doesn't seem to matter when it's about him - questions about him. From people like me.'

He concluded: 'Free speech is only important when someone you don't like, or I would say someone who doesn't have your same point of view... if they're allowed to speak freely and to say their point of view.' 

'He didn't quite seem to understand that he did,' Lemon answered, before citing how the billionaire has faced accusations from the Anti-Defamation League and others of tolerating antisemitic messages on the platform since purchasing it - leading to a public apology and a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau with a rabbi, Ben Shapiro and a Holocaust survivor (seen here)

Lemon revealed earlier in the day that his new X show has been canned by Elon Musk after the billionaire became 'so upset' by their unreleased interview 

Burnett went on to air a tweet from Musk made days before, in which the outspoken South African complained about migrants changing the political climate of the US.

'Exactly,' Musk wrote, replying to a post from an alt-right political theorist that claimed US officials' counting of migrants in the census 'incentivizes Democrats to continue the [migrant] invasion in order to build up power.'

He went on: 'Increasing illegals boosts Dem voting power, causing them to recruit even more! 

'If Dems win President, House & Senate (with enough seats to overcome filibuster), they’ll grant citizenship to all illegals & America will become a permanent one-party deep socialist state.' 

The statement is somewhat in line with the ideas of The Great Replacement Theory - concocted by French author Renaud Camus in 2010 - picked up steam on then-Twitter prior to Musk's takeover, before being censored by Musk's predecessors.

Upon taking the helm in 2022, Musk made it his mission to create a platform devoid of censorship, before going on to allow such posts to be seen censor-free.

The far-right activist, who made the assertion Musk agreed with, for example, had been banned before Musk bought the website.  

Hours before, Lemon took to his own X profile to slam Musk's decision as an attack on his free speech, after which Musk countered by insisting Lemon is free to share his show on the platform 'without' censorship.

However, the Tesla boss quickly added, 'we reserve the right to make decisions about our business partnerships.'

Meanwhile, Lemon, after losing out on what was likely a lucrative contract, told his 1.4 million followers of the ill-fated encounter: 'We had a good conversation. Clearly [Musk] felt differently,' 

He went on: '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.' 

'Hardcore questions were asked,' Lemon added in a separate post shortly after, declining to say what it was that angered Musk.

Journalist Kara Swisher, a contributor at New York Magazine, posited that the billionaire took offense to 'questions about his ketamine use', after insiders told the Wall Street Journal Musk regularly micro-doses ketamine for depression and takes full doses at parties

Lemon - who went on to proudly advertise his return to the network where he spent 17 years later in the day - has yet to produce the full-clip.

The called-off show's first episode, for now, remains unseen.