A live-streamed interview between Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk on the social network X was plagued by technical problems and had to be delayed by nearly 45 minutes. According to Musk, it was a so-called DDoS attack. After the delayed launch, Trump recounted his view of the assassination attempt in which a gunman hit him in the ear last month. He also said Russia would never have invaded Ukraine if he were president.
Interview
The interview on Trump’s X account, which was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. local time (2 a.m. EDT), was initially viewed by more than 120,000 users, but many more were then shown the error message “Details unavailable,” the AP reported.
“There appears to have been a massive DDoS attack on X,” Musk said, referring to a type of cyberattack in which attackers try to disrupt a particular internet service by overloading it with a large number of queries or requests.
The interview eventually started 42 minutes late and lasted about two hours. At one point, 1.3 million people were listening to it.
Musk’s announced “unscripted” interview was intended to serve the purpose of having the American ex-president directly address potentially millions of voters. It was also an opportunity for social network X to gain new users, the AP recalled.
In the interview, Trump recounted in detail, among other things, how he perceived the July 13 assassination attempt on his person at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, from which he escaped with an ear injury, but one event attendee was killed and two others were injured, and the attacker also died. According to the former president, the assassination was made possible by a “lack of coordination” and an error by security guards in securing the building from which the attacker fired. Trump also said he would return to Butler in October, according to Reuters. The US election will be held on November 5.
Criticism
Trump went on to reiterate criticism of his likely opponent in the presidential election, Kamala Harris. He described the current Democratic vice president as a supporter of the radical left as well as a culprit of the situation on the southern border of the US, which is facing an influx of migrants, CNN reported.
On the subject of Russian aggression in Ukraine, Trump said it would never have taken place if he were president. “Nobody feels worse than I do about the situation in Ukraine because I know it would never happen,” Politico quoted him as saying. He described Ukrainian President Volorymyr Zelensky, with whom he spoke on the phone last month for the first time since the start of the large-scale Russian invasion, as “very honourable”.
Musk, who until a few years ago described himself as a Democrat, endorsed Trump’s presidential candidacy two days after the failed assassination.
Earlier, Musk had reinstated Trump’s account, which was banned by the management of the social network then called Twitter in the wake of the January 6, 2021, violence and concerns about “the risk of further incitement to violence” by Trump. Musk bought the company in November 2022. Trump had not posted on the social network until his interview with Musk on Monday, insisting he was happier on his own platform, Truth Social.
source: ČTK
