Richard Arnold: US Correspondent on the technical difficulties and response to Elon Musk's interview with Donald Trump

Elon Musk's live interview with Donald Trump's caught people's attention, but not for the reason he'd hoped.  

The conversation had a bumpy start after a 40-minute delay due to technical difficulties on X.  

It's being labelled a high-profile embarrassment for the billionaire, whose platform's faced multiple outages since he took over.  

Last year, former candidate Ron DeSantis faced a similar server meltdown launching his campaign.  

US correspondent Richard Arnold told Mike Hosking once it got going, it was hardly an interview, with Musk having already endorsed Trump.  

He says the audio quality was so bad that some listeners reported hearing Trump slurring and talking with a lisp.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Stay tired, Richard Arnold. Morning. So we're hearing from one
of the prisoner swaps.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Gosh, yeah, this is extraordinary. We are now hearing word
from someone who was involved in this biggest US Russian
prisoner swaped since the end of the Cold War. The
exchange that occurred a couple of weeks back. It brought home,
as you know, Wall Street General reporter Evan Gyskevich and
US Marine Paul Wheeland among twenty four people in all
who were exchanged. Wheeland had been held for what six years.

(00:26):
Now one of those freed US Russian citizen, Vladimir Kara Merzer,
is speaking out his crime, his shocking crime that brought
him a twenty five year prison term in the Putin Gulag,
was speaking out against the Russian war in Ukraine. He
had been held in the worst of the Siberian gulags
for eleven months. It was solitary confinement, tiny cell where
in the mornings they would roll up the sleeping match,

(00:49):
so there was nothing for him to sleep on during
the day, just that stone floor. Then, a couple of
weeks back, as he thought this was going to be
his life for another two and a half decades, the
prison bosses took him to their office and demanded that
he write an official statement in praise of Vladimir Putin. Well,
he refused to be any part of that.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
I said, no, I'm never going to write this. They
said why not. I said, well, first of all, because
I do not consider Vladimir Putin to be a legitimate president.
I consider him to be a dictator, a usurper, and
a murderer whose personally responsible for the death of his
political opponents.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
These guys have some guts, don't they. Karen Mrsam had
been friends with Rustion opposition leader Alexi Navonni, who died
in prison in the most suspicious circumstances back in February.
The prison guards then came to get Kara Murs a
few days on after this office encounter, and he thought
that he was just about to be murdered as well.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
They said that I had ten minutes to get up,
get dressed, and get ready, and I was absolutely certain
of that moment that I was going to be let
out and get executed.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Ten minutes to execution. Well, they didn't kill him. Instead,
they took him off to the local airport in Omsk
in his underwear.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
They don't have any words to express how it feels
when you spa nearly a year in solitary confinement, just
setting in a tiny cell on your own, day after day,
not being able to speak to anyone, not being able
to go anywhere, not being able to do anything, and
suddenly you find yourself in the middle of a busy
passenger airport.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
What an experience. Just a few hours later he was
flown on to Germany, which was because part of that
international prisoner swap. Then a call came in from Joe Biden,
US President, Joe Biden, who was with this man's young daughters.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
No one is strong enough for this. I was sure
I'm going to die prison. I don't believe what's happening.
I still think it's a I still think I'm sleeping
in my prison instead of hearing your voice.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
So that was the moment Mike surreal, He says, what
an instant As he notes, there are still hundreds of
political dissidents locked away by Putin and co.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
What what are the reviews on yesterday's effort?

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well, what box do you put this in? Political chatter
was hardly an interview between the political candidate and the
world's richest man, Elon, who'd already endorsed him, So this's
not journalism. Once there, chat got going forty minutes late,
Elon must praise Donald Trump for his many tweets during
his presidential term. That would be the main point right

(03:13):
before Trump was a band then invited back to Twitter
or x Now. I got a call today. But the
audio quality of this Trump thing was so bad that
he was heard slurring words and speaking with a lisp,
according to some listeners. I mean maybe after a Malfie,
you know, Glenn could go. I don't know, just a thought.
But here is part of the Trump plea for Jewish
voter support.

Speaker 5 (03:33):
I say, if you're a Jewish person, or if you
believe in Israel, if you're a person that you know
is very pro Israel, if you vote for her, it's
worse than Biden.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
If you're a person who yeah, whatever, maybe zedb Engineering
could offer some assistance here. Anyway, there was little new
in the two and hours of this. Also, on education,
Trump spoke of the idea of abolishing the federal Education Department.

Speaker 5 (03:58):
I want to closed up Department of Education, move education
back to the states where where states like Iowa, where
states like Idaho.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
You know, not every state will do great, So sorry Idaho,
Sorry Iowa, you know not everyone can do great.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
They all right, man, nice to see you. Richard Arnold states,
there's a poll out to some of them trying to
sprint this morning. And if you know anything about Florida,
it's It's It's It's USA Today and Suffolk University. The
headline is Kamala Harris's within striking distance of Trump in Florida.
The numbers forty seven to forty two. Trump leads, but
because there's a four point four percent margin of era,

(04:36):
they say she's quite unquote within striking distance. History of
Florida is fifty fifty. No one wins Florida by a mile.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
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