David Ellison GRILLED Amid CNN Takeover & Kara Swisher CHALLENGES Casey Newton Over X

David Ellison, I believe, called CBS News and CNN cousins this week, but they're going to get married at some point. I guess it's going to be a very awkward marriage. There's no way Skydance is going to have two separate silo news divisions. You're going to see these networks come together, and it might be awkward at first, and it's going to be painful, but that is going to happen.

Welcome to Power Lines presented by Status, a Skydance Corporation. Just kidding. I'm John Patsiantos.

And I'm Oliver Darcy.

Today, David Ellison has completed his hard-fought deal to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery and now he's meeting the press. Was grilled by CNN's Anderson Cooper in a town hall and I spoke to him on the historic Paramount lot and asked him about his relationship with Donald Trump. Plus, we've got renowned tech journalist Casey Newton joining us to discuss why he's decided to return to Elon Musk's X platform years after he decided to leave the right-wing fever swamp. And we've got a surprise message for him from Kara Swisher. You won't want to miss this. All that and more on this week's Power Lines. Just a reminder, be sure to like and subscribe the show so you don't miss another episode. Mash that button now while you got a chance. And while you're hitting the like button, we'll drop a link into the Apple Podcast and Spotify destinations, make sure to follow us on your favorite audio platform. We'd really appreciate it. All right, so this week, Oliver, Paramount boss, David Ellison completed his purchase of Warner Brothers Discovery after this long drawn out deal that included the states' lawsuits, thousands in Hollywood speaking out against it, protesting even with their own names. It was quite remarkable. Uh Ellison has been now taking questions from the press about how he intends to run the company. He held a press conference in Hollywood. Uh he sat down with uh Anderson Cooper at CNN for a town hall and he went on CNBC just this morning to talk to David Faber about why he decided to keep CNN chief Mark Thompson and how CBS News has changed its approach under Bari Weiss.

You kept Mark Thompson. Why? Um he's he's done a phenomenal job and we also given everything everyone's been through we want stability. Uh we believe in editorial independence across the news organizations. We think CNN is a remarkable brand. We think CBS News is a remarkable brand. When you put these two businesses together it's an it's it has

CBS News under Bari Weiss has changed its approach to a certain extent. Do you expect similar moves from CNN?

Uh right now I'd say you you have to talk to Mark. Corporate stays out of editorial. So again I would say that's a that's a conversation for Mark, a conversation for Bari, but we're going to support them.

This is more of what we've heard from David Ellison since uh he emerged on the scene. I remember last year, John, last summer, he was on stage giving a press conference after acquiring Paramount and he was preaching editorial independence and letting CBS News journalists do their thing. Of course, he then installed Bari Weiss and has supported her as she's radically overhauled 60 Minutes, firing correspondents, and as she's overhauled the entire news network. So, I think the the proof will really be in the pudding here. David Ellison can say all he wants and he's been saying this week quite a bit that he supports editorial independence at CNN, that he supports at CBS News. But, as David Faber very lightly noted there, there have been a lot of editorial changes under Sky ownership of CBS News. And I think that's why there are real questions and concerns that now that they own CNN, there there could be changes there. Now, of course, keeping Mark Thompson in place is a good signal and it suggests that at least for now, they're going to keep their hands off of CNN. I think there are questions about the long term and whether that's going to be the plan as they eventually merge CBS News and CNN. And I I also um you know, I think that right now, as David Ellison said, I think he candidly was said they want stability. They don't want to rock the boat right now. Uh, but again, David Ellison plans on owning this company for decades to come. And so what he does in the first year or two of CNN, I I think that could be about creating stability, but we need we still don't know how he's going to govern this organization, how he's going to be a steward of it for the long haul,

right? I mean, there's been so much controversy around his ownership of of, you know, CBS News under Paramount and what has happened over there. And that is a small it's a far cry really from the reach and authority that CNN has especially on the global sphere. So um there's been a lot of um anxiety around this. So he held a press conference this week here in LA on the Paramount lot. Um they invited a couple dozen journalists to attend. I went there along with some others here mostly in the trades and and other outlets. Um, I I asked him some pointed questions, Oliver, about this. I wish we had some video to show you, but we we weren't able to record it. I asked him specifically about those comments he made to you one year ago when he took over Paramount, which is that you're taking over this company. You said at the time that your goal was not to politicize it, but then you went and held a UFC on the White House lawn uh for Donald Trump on his birthday, although it was supposed to be for the what is the the America 250. Okay. Um then you went and held a White House dinner to honor the White House. Those are their words, which we have heard even some CBS news staffers felt so uncomfortable about that they didn't attend. So, I asked him this question in front of um others, including his new co-CEO, and he said that he thinks it's important to talk to everybody on both sides of the aisle, and that when you're operating in a business-friendly relationship, those are his words, that you should always have those relationships. And he went on to say that they were in a transaction review process. But with that said, we are now turning the page and we are operating and moving forward. So he said, I understand how some people might feel that the company was politicized, but the best thing we can say now is we want to prove it over time. I found this fascinating, Oliver, because I think read between the lines here what he is attempting to say. My interpretation of that was, look, we did what we had to do under a transactional president, Donald Trump, to get this deal done. Did I have to court him even very publicly? Did I have to um throw parties and make this lavish? Did I have to bend the knee? I mean, he probably wouldn't say he did that, right? But did I have to kowtow? The answer is yes. But that was to get the deal done. And now, in his words, we want to turn the page on all of that. That phase of this deal is totally over with now. Now we can get on and move forward. That's not going to happen anymore. That that to me seems like what he's trying to say. What do you What do you think?

I think that's exactly right. And he's asking the public to excuse his really um shameful behavior, I'd say, over the past year where he did do that dinner honoring Donald Trump on First Amendment grounds, by the way, which is absurd. And doing I mean, he had done a bunch of stuff. Uh you remember he was Lindsey Graham's uh guest at the State of the Union which was weird. Usually chief executives don't go to that event. Nevertheless, as part of, you know, a guest of someone a Trump ally, um he did a he did a a host of things to signal that he was Trump friendly, right? And then there were reports too in the Wall Street Journal, credible news organization, that they were making promises to the White House to issue sweeping changes at CNN when they owned it. There were a lot of things that happened in the last year for reasonable people to have reasonable questions about how he was going to govern this organization and how he was going to work as an owner of a news organization. And now he's basically saying, you know, we just did that stuff to get the deal done. So don't actually hold us to that standard. We're actually going to operate totally differently now. And it makes you question I guess he's not you know he he's fine behaving like that and kowtowing to the administration if he needs to get a deal done. Of course there will be other deals down the line he will want to get done other business before the federal government. So it really I think not a great look to kind of admit that and say that we were in a transaction review process and I guess that means they operate without morals during that transaction review process but now we're turning the page right. Um he also said that this is a business-friendly administration which is of course absurd. This is an administration that has weaponized government to go after critics and punish critics. It is an administration that has issued crippling tariffs across the world that have hurt businesses. The idea that this is a business-friendly administration. Jerry Carell, a big business partner of it, David Ellison and now David Ellison keep saying this is ridiculous and I think it should be called out on. We shouldn't just accept that. But his larger point here is that apparently they aren't going to operate the same way now that they got the Department of Justice under Donald Trump to approve their deal. And the ask of the public is discard all memory basically of this. We're a different company now. I don't know if that's the way it works. And I think the public has a long memory and they're not very happy with the way he's behaved uh over the past year.

Yeah. So, I I did get a follow-up question with him before they took the mic away from me, which was, "So, you you said that publicly last year that you had a conversation with Donald Trump where you discussed CNN." You called it a great conversation. I asked him, "What did you guys talk about?" And um I imagine he was not thrilled to continue to be asked about this, but he said for absolute clarity, we have not talked to any political leader of any party about news other than to say we want to be in the truth business and we want to be in the trust business and we believe in complete editorial independence. It felt like um he had gone back to some talking points on that that he has been saying repeatedly about editorial independence. Um, but as you point out, Oliver, other outlets like the Wall Street Journal have reported that he made promises to make sweeping changes to that network or his father. It is interesting though that he has decided at least for now in the short term, and we're going to get into this more, that he's kept Mark Thompson in the chair running the network for now. Um, which is not quite the promise that had been made to the administration. So, I'm curious how that's going to how that's going to work itself out. But he said that he had never basically talked to them about anything other than wanting to be in the truth business. I find that a little hard to believe given that Donald Trump hates CNN. Um has made that known for so many years now. It's like it's as known as as anything else at this point. It's literally banned CNN among MS Now, which he also doesn't like, and Politico from the White House that's being fought out in the courts. Um, it's hard for me to imagine that they just went there and had a chat and he said, "You know, we're in the truth business here, Mr. President." Um, I think that was a pretty delicate way of talking about that. I do wonder what happened behind the scenes there and I'm a little bummed that we didn't get a little insight into it. I think that there's a reason Donald Trump, as recently as the day this deal closed this week, was praising the Ellisons and saying that they're terrific people and this is going to be a great company. And Donald Trump, again, he only cares about CNN and CBS News. He does not care about what programming is on Paramount Plus or HBO. And so, when David Ellison previously said in December he had great conversations with Donald Trump about CNN, the only great conversation you're having with Donald Trump about CNN is saying, "Mr. President, I hear you." And maybe he said, "We want to be in the truth business and the trust business, but maybe there was some wink and nod and Donald Trump misinterpreted. I don't know. I have a hard time thinking that David Ellison told Donald Trump, "We believe in complete editorial independence and we're not going to touch CNN, Mr. President." That seems hard to believe. Donald Trump literally calling

he was literally saying in December that any transaction involving CNN's parent company needed to result in the ownership and and leadership of CNN changing. He was openly saying this stuff. So, I have a hard time believing uh David Ellison there. I think that there were a lot of conversations and maybe it wasn't him. Maybe it was his father, Larry Ellison, who is a big Trump fan uh and is is clearly right-wing and MAGA. Maybe he was the one making the promises. He is ultimately the one with the money buying this company at the end of the day. And and I don't I don't know who it was, but Donald Trump was certainly hearing what he liked about CNN, and he certainly likes the Ellisons. And it's not just because David Ellison's showing up to his state dinners. There's definitely some sort of wink and nod that was assured to this White House, it seems like about CNN. And again, it's not like some tabloid reported this. The Wall Street Journal, which has incredibly high standards for this kind of reporting, is the one that reported this. So, um I I wish that you got another follow-up question. I'm surprised, John, that they let you on the Paramount lot. So, I guess kudos to them to some extent for even taking your questions. You got two questions, too, which was nice. Uh, but it would have been great if you got like a few in there.

No, I mean I I do have to give them credit that there was some great transparency here. This is the second time in two years in which Ellison has now acquired a major studio and taken questions from the press um in a pretty open environment. There were no restrictions on it other than we just couldn't do any audio or video recording. Um, and so I do think to their credit they they are putting him right in front of us and allowing us to ask whatever we want. Um, and so I, you know, I appreciate that you're doing that. You don't oftentimes get these kind of moments, Oliver, where you get a full-blown press conference in front of somebody taking over a company like this. So, um, there more of these. Honestly, I I I I do give them credit. You know, we're critical of them and I'm critical of his answers, but I do give them credit for having a second press conference in a year. I mean, it would be nice if like a Zuckerberg had a press conference every once in a while and took some questions from the press without screening them and selecting what he was going to be asked. Um, and so while the qu the answers here were not super satisfactory and we'd like to talk to David Ellison ourselves and maybe in a more uh lengthy manner, uh, at least they're doing this. They do deserve a little bit of credit for taking questions, for allowing you, who they definitely know is going to be critical, to come on the Paramount lot, giving you two questions. Well, I mean, to be fair, the other questions, Oliver, were were not exactly a grilling. They were they were pretty gentle. Um, they were very process-oriented, like how are you going to bring the two together? And how are you and your co-chief now uh splitting the baby on your day-to-day work interactions? It's like, okay, well, Oliver, when we come back, we're going to get into Anderson Cooper, who now works for David Ellison, of course, got to sit down with him in front of a company town hall and ask him straight up how he's going to run the network and bring these two together. We'll have that.

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All right, we're back. So Oliver, this week on Tuesday at an internal company town hall the day of the Warner Brothers and Paramount merger, David Ellison sat down with none other than Anderson Cooper, the CNN anchor, who you might remember, of course, also was a 60 Minutes correspondent until he decided this is not for me anymore under the new regime of Bari Weiss. Slightly uncomfortable there. Um, but now his boss is David Ellison despite all of this. They sat down together for what honestly sounds like Cooper was really grilled Ellison in front of the entire company. Um, this was not a public event, but Oliver, you spoke to a few staffers inside who were there. What happened?

Yeah, this was a company-wide event, so I think thousands of people were probably watching. And I'm sure David Ellison really wanted to talk about his vision for Hollywood and the movie studios. But throughout the week, I think a theme is he's been getting questions about CNN. Like CNN is front and center even though it's a small part of the business. And when Anderson Cooper interviewed him at the town hall, he had a lot of questions about CNN. He asked first and foremost whether David Ellison, who just went to that state dinner with Donald Trump last week, um support CNN's efforts to regain access to covering Donald Trump. Remember Donald Trump banned them and now he's not letting him on Air Force One. Sometimes it's a whole mess. Ellison said of course he does support CNN in those efforts which was notable. I think it's his first time he's uh taken a position on that. Obviously he has to say he supports it but still notable. And Anderson Cooper didn't let up there. It wasn't like one question and move on and check the box. No, no, no. Anderson Cooper read Donald Trump or sorry read David Ellison to my understanding remarks that people like Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth have said. Remember Hegseth said he couldn't wait for the Ellisons to take control of CNN. Um Ellison responded that he believes quote deeply in journalism end quote. He said CNN is quote a vital part of our democracy. And then he actually addressed the Hegseth thing head-on. He said quote I read that in the press too and my reaction was at the time I had never met Hegseth. End quote. Clearly trying to put himself put some distance between himself and Hegseth and the administration. Basically saying, "I support CNN. I want to be a good steward. I'm going to allow for editorial independence." He actually went on to say that he supports CNN's digital uh rivalization efforts under Mark Thompson. On and on it went. But I think the clear thing he's trying to do again in this interview with uh Anderson Cooper before the company is say, "I am going to be a good steward of CNN. I'm going to let it operate the way it has been." And Mark Thompson who has been the chief executive editor and chief of CNN for the past three years. He's doing a great job and we want him to stay.

Yeah. Um it sounds like he's he's the boss man now, right? And it seems like they are in this moment now where the thing that is probably the smartest play for him, which he clearly recognizes, is to come in and say, "Hey, we're going to steady this ship. Uh I don't have any politics to play here in the background. I you and I are on the same team now. We work together and so if you're being iced out of the White House, I'm on your side. My network needs to have access to the White House. I am curious if what if there is maybe some conversations that are going on behind the scenes with the administration because we know that the Ellisons particularly daddy Larry Ellison is very close to Donald Trump. Um I do wonder whether or not there's going to be some changes there and maybe maybe Trump will feel a little more comfortable now that he knows the Ellisons of ownership. The Pete Hegseth thing too is also fascinating because we know that Bari Weiss, you have reported this, Oliver, has um communicated with Pete Hegseth's wife who um helped land interviews and secure uh stories for CBS News in the past and 60 Minutes. That's probably in part why um they have some I don't know collegial feelings about what the Ellisons are doing and whether or not they get a fair shake on the network. Um but one thing that I think is curious is that um there's some major things that are still going to happen on the horizon very soon. The first of which is this question that hangs now over CNN boss Mark Thompson who has agreed to stay on but has not yet signed a contract to actually stay in the role in the long term along with his deputies the chief that the top lieutenants of the network like the Virginia Moseleys the Amy Entelises and others who their contracts you reported this week Oliver are set to expire in early 2027. What what is going to happen with this now?

Well that's the big question. So he said he wants Mark Thompson in the job, but how long does he want Mark Thompson in the job is the main question. So Mark Thompson's current deal expires in the spring. They obviously kept him on. They wanted him part of the big press release on T on Monday when they announced leadership, but what was conspicuously absent was an announcement that he signed a new deal. So, for instance, HBO chief Casey Bloys, you know, we learned on Monday, uh, that he had signed a multi-year agreement to stay inside the company and continue running the streaming platform. Uh, there hasn't been, to our knowledge, such a deal with Mark Thompson, and it's unclear if there is a deal, how long it's going to be for. My guess again is it's going to at least run through the 2028 election. Usually, you don't change leadership ahead of an election like that. Um, particularly one that's going to be as momentous as this. But that's the real question is how long are they going to have Mark Thompson in his job? We still don't know. And then there's a lot of executive uh members. Virginia Moseley is the executive editor at CNN. You know, her deal's coming up. Is she going to get re renewed? I imagine so, but like how long is this current team going to be in place? Amy Entelis is the head of talent. Eric Sherling is the head of uh programming. All of their deals, my understanding, is up. They're up next year. So, there's a lot of deals that need to be struck to keep the current CNN leadership team in place. Seems like David Ellison wants to do that. We'll see how long he keeps them in place for, though. I think that's the real big question, right? So, but Skydance, now that that's the name of the parent co here, is said that it's going to need $6 billion in cuts in synergies in in overlaps across the sweeping empire now. So, you know, some of it's going to come from studios, some's coming from cable, and there's a a whole probably laundry list that they have already put together of like, okay, we are going to chop here, we're going to snip there. Um CNN though has thousands of employees just working at one network and that's a lot of people. And if you have um especially expensive executives who are on the payroll whose contracts are coming up, you also at the same time are thinking, "Oh, we already have CBS news uh within our ranks and we have Bari Weiss installed in the leadership there. We supposedly like how things are going there even though it's ratings challenged." I am curious. Do you think though that we're going to start immediately seeing a blend of their leadership in some meaningful way? Even if Thompson continues to steer CNN and Bari steers CBS, what about the executive ranks in between?

Well, that's a good question. David Ellison, I believe, called CBS News and CNN cousins this week, but they're going to get married at some point. I guess it's going to be a very awkward marriage.

Oh, jeez.

They're going to get married at some point. They're going to come together. It's going to be one household. That's just a matter of time. There's no way Skydance with the efficiencies it needs to achieve is going to have two separate silo news divisions. It's just not going to happen. Like it's just not going to happen. So maybe in the short period of time it will. Now David Ellison has been asked about this and he mentioned that he wants to you know usually you would figure these sort of synergies out within 120 days. Seems hard to believe that that's going to happen with CBS News and CNN in the 120 days because CBS News is a union shop. CNN's not a union shop. No one really understands how these two are going to merge. Um, but maybe there will be some, you know, for instance, on the real estate level, I I still think there are union rules that apply to this, but perhaps, you know, what's been widely suggested to me by people in the industry is they get rid of the CBS broadcasting center on 57th Street on the west side of Manhattan and they move everyone into Hudson Yards. Uh, you know, they've already surveyed that real estate. Uh you know there's been uh you know even and Tom Sabinski the president of CBS News was part of that surveying of real estate earlier this year. My understanding is that um the day we're recording this on Thursday, David Ellison is getting a tour of Hudson Yards from CNN Chief Mark Thompson and meeting some people but probably surveying that real estate that he now uh is under control of. And so my guess would be that would be one of the synergies they can easily achieve. They can probably sell the CBS broadcasting center property for some uh for a nice chunk of change. And then there's other there other things you know backend operations probably can be synergized quickly and that's like you know HR legal um you know uh those departments they'll probably find some synergies for but ultimately they're going to not want like you know if you have like correspondents who deploy into a hurricane it makes sense to just have one of those correspondents do hits on both networks right and ultimately Ely, I think they're you're going to see these networks come together and it might be awkward at first and it's going to be painful, but that is going to happen. And whether the entire executive class at CNN survives that and whether the entire executive class at CBS even survives that, I can't imagine that will be the case. There will probably be, you know, one class of executives for both companies at some point in time. It's just not happening in the near future.

Yeah. I'm curious honestly about what's going to happen on the news gathering side of these outlets. It feels like there's an opportunity there behind the scenes to blend your journalists that are really um the foundation of all of the reporting that you see on air on and online, right? These are a lot of the journalists working behind the scenes between reporters and editors who are getting these stories and popping these up either online and then, you know, appearing on air. It feels like there's probably some opportunities there to bring them together, which is probably not going to be great in terms of staffing for both outlets. I imagine we're going to see layoffs as we have merged roles there. Um, I also think, you know, we saw today, Oliver, that Ross Dowsett, who left the New York Times to join CBS in 60 Minutes as a correspondent, still a headscratcher to me, but whatever, is now also going to be writing for the Free Press, which is Bari Weiss's other outlet. I also wonder if we're going to see more of this where somebody joins network A and they also contribute to network B. You you have 24/7 rolling coverage on CNN, but then CBS News in terms of its broadcasting is really just like what CBS Mornings, CBS Evening News, 60 Minutes, what 48 Hours, which is sort of its own thing. I guess I guess the morning shows on Saturday, but there's not a lot of programming there where you could see, you know, like you have a uh a correspondent who could do hits across all of them. And it feels like we could set ourselves up here to see when contracts expire that people are not renewed because, you know, you've you've got this one reporter who's already going to cover that beat on both sides.

We'll see how it plays out. Again, one's a union shop, one's not. And my guess would be that they'll have to very carefully figure out what the surgery is going to look like here before they actually engage in it. And my guess would be that they'll probably kick this can down the road past the 2028 election, which we're like on the heels of already, crazy enough. But, you know, you skated past an issue there, too. Since uh David Ellison bought the Free Press, there's been a lot of integration between the Free Press and CBS News. They've welcomed a lot of those people on the air. There's some digital integration happening there, it seems like. And I'm curious whether we're going to see at any point in time the Free Press and CNN also kind of come together as you know CNN's working on its digital uh project or or plan to you know uh move to a digital outlet. Are there going to be some integration that happens between the Free Press and CNN? That is a that is a Skydance corporation, I believe, right? It's under the David Ellison property. So, um, and we've seen it happen at CBS News. U maybe Mark Thompson won't allow it to happen at CNN, but I don't know. They paid a lot of money for this thing,

And my guess would be that they want some integration. So we'll see what happens on that front as well. Will more Free Press people come on CNN's air? We'll have to wait and see.

All right. Well, I think the cuts are coming soon. Frankly, I think they don't have a lot of time. I think the money is a real problem. The debt burden at $80 billion for Skydance is a major problem, and I think they're going to have to get to work very fast. I think the new co-CEO is going to have to get to work on this kind of surgery very soon because the patient is ailing across the board. I mean, it is what it is. Anyways, all right. When we come back, Oliver, we'll have Casey Newton joining us. We'll ask him about his decision to rejoin Elon Musk's X after abandoning the platform.

We're going to now grill you.

I thought we were just going to chat about the iPhone Duo. I don't know what you're talking about.

Oh god, don't even start. Oliver's getting one and I am like, 'No.' Okay, here we go. All right, we're joined now by renowned tech journalist Casey Newton, the author of the newsletter Platformer and co-host of the upcoming NPR podcast Machine Gods. Welcome to the show, Casey.

We're doing well. We're doing well. You recently announced you were leaving the New York Times collab podcast Hard Fork with your co-host Kevin Roose to form your own company and launch this new Machine Gods podcast. We're super excited for it. We were just talking, but I'm obsessed with the trailer. I've watched it repeatedly. I laugh my ass off every time. Like, hats off. You guys are off to an amazing start.

So this week though, I will say you surprised me. You surprised your subscribers and maybe the industry with an announcement in your newsletter that three years after quitting Elon Musk's X, that you would be returning to the platform. You had implored your audience in the past to leave the platform with values. I'm curious, in your mind, what changed and why you decided to go back.

All right, Casey. Suffice to say, I think a lot of people were disappointed in this decision.

including Kara Swisher, who has been a mentor, I think it's fair to say, of yours.

She is, and she actually has a message for you that we want to play back and then we'll get your reaction to it.

Casey, Casey, Casey, Casey. Oh dear. A little while ago, you flounced off of Twitter, being angry at Elon Musk and the Nazi porn bar it had become. And I like a good flounce. Although I just laughed, I didn't flounce, I just laughed. And now you're back. You're back. You kind of slithered back. You kind of embarrassingly, sheepishly came back for more. And I know what you said: all the conversation goes on there. I've had a lot of people tell me I should be on there, although I don't really like being called a [__] all day long, so that's why I'm not there. And I get your idea that all the AI bros are there and you're having the discussion, you need to be part of it, blah blah blah blah blah. I get it. But that's about convenience and about your business. And I think you should think about the fact that the reason you're good at what you do is because you're an amazing reporter and you have incredible insights, and you don't have to be part of a conversation that also includes really toxic stuff, non-consensual sexual imagery and child pornography and things like that, which that platform has been accused of.

And I recently interviewed Ari Emanuel, and one of the things he said was that he didn't really read what Elon said, and that's why he continued to affiliate with them, because he's a great inventor, investor, whatever. And let me just give you a sampler pack of Elon Musk of late. And this is pretty recent, so you can understand the kind of people you're hanging around with: 'Whites are a rapidly dying minority.' 'Anyone raising a baby as trans is guilty of extreme child abuse.' He has a trans child, by the way. 'If I were black, Starlink would have received a license to operate years ago.' 'Confiscation of land from anyone who isn't black has formally passed into law in South Africa. This is where America is headed if it's not stopped.' This is not true. 'There are large numbers of anti-white hate crimes in America every day.' Every day. 'Why does Variety constantly push anti-white racism? For some reason, only white characters are rarely race-swapped. Why is that?' And about Ilhan Omar: 'then she should be thrilled to be sent back to Somalia to escape white men.' Two more. 'Murderous migrants beheading innocent people in their hometown — that is what's making people angry, not social media.' This is not happening. It was not an immigrant who did that particular crime. 'Anyone who opposes reimmigration is a traitor.' Anyway, have fun. Have fun in the Nazi porn bar. Come back when you can.

Casey, what do you say to Kara?