Former CBS, now independent, journalist Catherine Herridge tells the story of how she lost an interview with Elon Musk at the height of the 2024 campaign season. Musk was campaigning with Donald Trump and very much in the news in the fall of 2023.
“This opportunity to interview Elon Musk was developing, so I went to the CBS executives, and I said, ‘this is the opportunity that we have. He's saying, 'I want to do it live and on my platform.'”
But she says CBS had some conditions.
“The reaction from the executives was, 'well, we can't do it live.' And I was like, 'what do you mean we can't do it live?' He's like, 'well, we don't know what he's going to say.' I was like, well, I'm thinking, isn't that the point of journalism? You don't know what the person's going to say?’”
CBS wanted control over what Musk was allowed to say on their airwaves.
The network’s response was, ‘you know, we have to … it has to be taped. We have to have the ability to edit it. It has to be on our platform. We have to control the platform.'”
Herridge, an Emmy Award-winner respected for her experience and investigative reporting, says the answer shocked and embarrassed her so much that she actually protected CBS. She was too embarrassed to tell Musk the truth.
“It's one of the biggest interviews you could ever have. I felt so ashamed, frankly, that I never went back to Elon Musk and said, ‘listen, they want to do it, but they've set all these conditions on it.’”
Musk helped Trump win the election then made headlines for uncovering waste through the Department of Government Efficiency.
He officially announced he was leaving that role in May 2025, thanking Trump for the opportunity while as the same time publicly criticizing a major Trump-backed budget bill for increasing the federal deficit.
Now, the two seem to have thawed their relationship.
They reportedly dined together at Mar-a-Lago, and Musk described the evening as “lovely,” indicating a warmer personal connection.
Musk has publicly congratulated Trump on U.S. actions such as Venezuela and has signaled broader political alignment, including expressing support for Republicans ahead of the 2026 elections.
Trump, in turn, has spoken positively about having a "good relationship" with Musk and acknowledged his role in past election support.
