Musk Twitter Takeover Is Democrats’ Digital Waterloo
BUCK: Clay and I want to start off today with the news about Elon Musk and Twitter, and I get that about — I don’t know — I would say maybe 5% of our folks listening right now are active Twitter users. It’s not that big. It is enormously important to politics, to media, and to the national conversation as a platform. That’s just the reality of it.
Donald Trump, I believe, used Twitter more effectively than any politician. Donald Trump used Twitter to do an end run on the mainstream media and actually take the fight to the Democrat-aligned corporate media in a way that, without that platform, would not at the time have been possible. That’s one of the reasons they decided to just go for it, kick him off, and make it an-all-out censorship situation, where they just shut down ideas.
They shut down the Hunter Biden laptop. My friends, they may have cost Trump reelection, that one platform, by doing that, ’cause you say, “Well, I’m not on Twitter.” Yeah, but people catch on on Twitter, and they post more to Facebook, and see the story, and they’re aware of it. And other people in the media pick up details and stories and threads from Twitter.
It grows out from it. It’s the public bulletin board. It is the town square. So, Clay, there’s a lot here. But first, if nothing else, it’s just amazing to watch. So many people who make a living allegedly in journalism and the media and supposedly care about free speech who are in abject meltdown right now — literally shaking — because Elon Musk may buy it. He’s not gonna suppress the left. He’s never said that. He just says free speech might be coming to Twitter, and the Democrats panicked. We all know why.
CLAY: This could be, Buck… I woke up this morning; immediately we’re text threading. This could be… If Elon Musk were able to buy Twitter, this could be the biggest moment for free speech — and I don’t think I’m exaggerating this — in most of our lives in terms of what the impact could be for having someone who was committed to the marketplace of ideas, that you should be able to have robust, uninhibited debate.
That Twitter is not going to censor you when you have an opinion that may be outside of the mainstream, that Twitter is not going to block you when you say that there’s a difference between men and women and you can’t just choose your gender, that we could have inside of Twitter a real, true town square, as you put it.
And I understand people out there who say, “Well, just go sign up for Gab or go sign up for TRUTH Social or go sign up for Rumble and go sign up for Parler and all these different competing companies,” and I give credit to everybody who is trying to compete. But people are not going to, en masse, abandon Twitter and go to a new version of Twitter.
It’s just not going to happen. Twitter is the place where influence and debate is magnified on an epic scale. Here’s my… So for those of you out there who don’t know what’s going on, Elon’s officially offered $54.25 a share to buy the company. That news came down about 6:30 a.m. this morning, and Elon is obviously the richest man in the world right now.
But Twitter stock is now down a little bit on the day, which to me — I had a lot of conversations with people, Buck. They expect for the Twitter board, the people that I talk to, to reject this offer from Elon Musk, and then we will get into a real battle. Now, maybe Twitter’s got some sort of… They call it all the time a “white knight,” somebody who’s gonna ride in and pay more money than Elon Musk offered.
Get into a bidding war with somebody else that they like more is offering more substantial dollars. But this is a battle for the ages. I really don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that. To your point earlier, Buck, I do believe that Twitter and social media as a group turned the outcome of the 2020 election with what they allowed to be shared and what they allowed to be discussed.
I think that social media led to the disastrous lockdown universe that has existed for the last two years, because they shouted down people like you and me — your kids being masked, your kids being out of school. Rather than allowing real debate to with your, Twitter consistently puts their finger on the scale and weighs it in the way that they decide is appropriate.
BUCK: I think there is panic because of exactly what you laid out going forward that the Democrat left has gotten really used to being able to — and remember, if they just ban… People say, “Well, you’re on Twitter. Buck and Clay are on Twitter.” Yeah, but the point is when there is a contentious moment, when there’s an election, when it really matters, they throttle you, they suspend you, they shut you down.
And that shifts the Overton window. That shifts the conversation nationally because of what is allowable online, right? They want people like you and me with substantial followings that tweet witty interesting stuff. They want us using their platform, but they want it to be by their rules in ways that do not go after their sacred cows.
Now, there’s also the issue of if Elon were — and by there a meeting today at 1 Eastern time, the board. I would bet money, and I don’t think — you and I can’t bet because we agree on this one — they’re absolutely going to reject it. That alone is fascinating, because for a company to reject an offer that would make all the shareholders money and would be backed by the literal richest man in the world shows you how important this is to the left.
CLAY: Yes.
BUCK: So for all the people listening who don’t use Twitter and are in parts of the country where everyone’s like, “Twitter? Who cares?” Let me tell you, this is essential to Biden and Kamala and Pelosi and CNN. Although Clay and I, maybe we’ll… Clay and I might actually take up a collection today on the street and buy CNN+ for a couple of hundred bucks, maybe.
CLAY: (laughing)
BUCK: Everyone is saying CNN+ is gonna be on the auction block here soon too. Anyway, Clay, part of this that I think could be even more interesting, at least at me, is for years the whole conservation around social media… You know, you and I started doing this roughly around the same time, let’s say 10-plus years ago, right? Being really active on Twitter.
Twitter hasn’t been around that long, hasn’t been a big thing that long. They used to say, “We don’t suppress conservatives. We just have very basically rules and they apply them equally.” Then they say, “Well, we make mistakes sometimes. We suppress conservatives, but we don’t mean to. It’s a free speech platform,” and then eventually when Donald Trump came along, it was, “Shut up, conservative peasants! We own this!
“Build your own Twitter — or maybe buy it. Build your own Twitter, build your own internet. We are taking Parler off Amazon Web Services. We’re kicking them off the internet, et cetera.” Right? If we get access to what I’ll call “the algo,” right — the algorithm, the back end — at Twitter, Clay, we would find that they have been shifting the political conversation in favor of Democrats aggressively for the last 10 years. They have been elevating moron blue checks with blue hair, nose rings, and too many cats at the expense of people like you and me that actually have something to say.
CLAY: Now, I will say the marketplace speaks, eventually, which is the great thing about capitalism. And what I do believe is, you’re right. Twitter, they did the analysis of who spends the most time on Twitter and who’s most prominently featured, and Twitter is 20 points more skewed towards the Democrat Party than the United States.
So it’s like the most left-wing Portland Democrat district that you can imagine. And I will say Democrats have become so enamored of Twitter that they think it’s the real world, that ultimately, I believe that’s why their party has gotten destroyed. I think they’re leaning into Twitter so aggressively as, “Oh, this is where the real world is.”
And that dichotomy between what the Twitter real world represents and what the real-real world represents is why Joe Biden and the Democrats in general are collapsing with, frankly, why Trump has had so much success. Now, here’s the challenge. Over time, Buck — and this is what I worry about — if Facebook and Twitter and probably TikTok (although I don’t know enough about TikTok) and Instagram and all of these social media platforms all end up making the exact same decision at the exact same point in time — which was which is what was so scary to me about Donald Trump getting banned.
I mean, they banned him from Pinterest! (laughing) I don’t know if Donald Trump is trying to sell knitting gear, but when all the women who sit around and sell their latest knit caps are like, “There’s no way we can have a MAGA cap on Pinterest anymore; Let’s ban Donald Trump,” it is a collusive, corrosive environment. And what Musk would represent to me is a punch-back in the other direction for robust, uninhibited marketplace of ideas.
BUCK: I think if we got access to the Twitter back end via Elon Musk’s takeover, which, to be clear, they’re gonna circle the wagons, the left, the Democrat Party, this is their digital Waterloo, folks. This is their all-in battle, because if this happens not only going forward will there be an actual digital marketplace of ideas for politics, culture, everything else.
But we’ll be able to see how much they’ve essentially rigged the game in the past, including what are effectively in-kind donations at election time, what are effectively maneuvers behind the scenes at Twitter to elevate or destroy certain politicians and personalities.
Obviously, they banned Trump forever. We know they do this. Obviously, they suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop. Clay, I bet it’s been much more than that and then we have to remember: Facebook, Google, they have algorithms too. Does anyone think that if we see what’s going on at Twitter it’s not gonna be clear what’s going on at the other tech giants?
CLAY: I would also point out this. If they turn down what would represent a 20-some-odd percent premium for the stock price right now versus what Elon Musk is offering, it’s also pretty tangible evidence that Twitter is not being run as a capitalistic venture. That is, they are not trying to maximize return for their shareholders — and, by the way, I’m one of the shareholders.
I’ve owned Twitter stock for a long time. They’re not trying to get as much money in our pockets. They are an ideologically driven center of thought, not a capitalistic driven center of thought. And that’s a substantial difference, right? It calls into question even more the marketplace of ideas angle because effectively what they’re saying is, “Twitter is more valuable to the Democrat Party, to left-wing politicians, than to allow it to be purchased by a free speech…”
And, by the way, I don’t even think of Elon Musk as a conservative, Buck. I just think of him as a businessman who believes that you have to experience all ideas in order to reach the best possible outcome.
BUCK: The position of the right is not, “Well, now let’s suppress all the lefties and kick them off.” No. I want their idiot ideas. I want you to be able to backhand Keith Olbermann, Clay. I just don’t want you getting shadow banned when you smoke him online, you know what I mean? I don’t want you getting in trouble for it, and that would be the reality we’re dealing with here, and I think the fact that Elon…
He’s not a dogmatic conservative at all. He’s kind of a free thinker, and all he’s saying is, “Let’s actually build a free speech platform,” and the left is in meltdown. It’s so productive, the left is in meltdown, and get ready for some takes — the Washington Post, New York Times writers — about “billionaires controlling conversation” without any irony.
CLAY: Yeah. And, by the way, the other thing we should mention is, just content-neutral policies. It’s amazing how content-neutral are that… Just content-neutral we’re not saying one side to the other.
BUCK: Can we come back to one second Clay ’cause I just saw this to know if you’ve already seen this breaking news from Charles Gasparino at Fox News, your colleague there, “Elon Musk Offers to Buy the Rest of Twitter — A legal source tells Fox Business that the SEC and the DOJ have launched a joint investigation into a myriad of regulatory issues at Tesla.”
BREAKING: As @elonmusk offers to buy the rest of @Twitter a legal source tells @FoxBusiness @SECGov and @TheJusticeDept have launched what he described as a “joint investigation” into a myriad of Musk regulatory issues primarily involving @Tesla https://t.co/TDFLED1XuI
— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) April 14, 2022
CLAY: Oh, of course.
BUCK: I didn’t even know this ’til I said it. They’re gonna go with every last thing they’ve got, folks. They’re gonna bring up all the artillery they can. They’re gonna cheat in every way.
