CNN
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X proprietor Elon Musk claimed Monday {that a} distributed denial-of-service assault had overwhelmed the corporate’s servers, stopping him from starting his interview with former President Donald Trump as hundreds of individuals making an attempt to affix the dialog complained they had been unable to hear.
“There seems to be a large DDOS assault on 𝕏. Engaged on shutting it down,” Musk mentioned in a post on X. “Worst case, we’ll proceed with a smaller variety of reside listeners and put up the dialog later.”
It was not instantly clear if dangerous actors had been behind what Musk known as an “assault,” or whether or not the difficulty was merely attributable to too many customers making an attempt to take heed to the dialog.
“DDOS,” or distributed denial of service, is a typical assault technique through which hackers flood a web site with phony site visitors to overwhelm its techniques and try and knock it offline.
Musk mentioned in a separate post that X “examined the system with 8 million concurrent listeners earlier as we speak.”
The audio-only interview’s troubled begin was paying homage to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ launch of his failed run for the Republican presidential nomination final 12 months. DeSantis tried to kick off his marketing campaign with a Twitter Areas occasion with Musk, however the occasion was delayed by 25 minutes and marred by technical difficulties that resulted in a a lot smaller viewers than the five hundred,000 who had initially tried to affix and hear.
Trump on the time mocked DeSantis’ botched launch, saying on his Reality Social web site that it was “a DISASTER!”
“His complete marketing campaign can be a catastrophe,” Trump mentioned on the time.
Trump’s Democratic rival Vice President Kamala Harris’ marketing campaign, which has a Reality Social account, shared that Trump remark about DeSantis as the previous president’s personal occasion with Musk was delayed Monday night time.
Trump and Musk started their dialogue — greater than 40 minutes late — with the previous president retelling how he had survived the assassination try at his Butler, Pennsylvania, rally on July 13. Trump mentioned how the shooter had been noticed by native police and rally attendees, and he praised the Secret Service for his or her response to the taking pictures.
Their dialog coated a broad array of matters — together with prolonged parts on vitality coverage, local weather change and the specter of nuclear warfare; immigration, with Trump promising the “largest deportation within the historical past of this nation”; federal authorities spending, with Musk proposing a fee to search for methods to make cuts; and extra.
Trump accused Democrats of a coup to take away President Joe Biden from the poll. He mentioned Harris’ look on a Time journal cowl and took jabs at Biden’s psychological state. He mentioned Jewish individuals who vote for Democrats ought to have their “heads examined.”
“We are able to discuss tunnels and rockets and electrical vehicles, so many issues. And now you’re into the AI, and that’s going to be one other magnificence,” Trump mentioned to Musk close to their dialog’s finish.
At a number of factors all through the interview, Trump’s speech sounded as if he had a lisp or was slurring his phrases, which attracted consideration on-line.
When requested whether or not there was an evidence, Trump marketing campaign spokesman Steven Cheung mentioned, “Should be your listening to.”
Harris’ marketing campaign described Trump and Musk as “self-obsessed wealthy guys” in an announcement following the interview.
“Trump’s total marketing campaign is in service of individuals like Elon Musk and himself — self-obsessed wealthy guys who will promote out the center class and who can’t run a livestream within the 12 months 2024,” Harris marketing campaign spokesman Joseph Costello mentioned.
Trump had posted earlier Monday on X – previously generally known as Twitter – for the primary time in practically a 12 months forward of his dialog on the platform later within the day with X proprietor and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Amongst Trump’s X posts was a video featuring past comments made by Democratic rival Kamala Harris in assist of progressive insurance policies – one thing the previous president has highlighted at his current marketing campaign rallies.
The feedback embody Harris saying that she didn’t need to “deal with people who find themselves undocumented, who cross the border, as criminals,” that “we have to in all probability take into consideration ranging from scratch” when requested whether or not she supported abolishing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and that she thought it was “fallacious and backward to assume that extra cops will create extra security,” in addition to remarks in assist of progressive coverage proposals akin to “Medicare for All” and the Inexperienced New Deal.
The video closes with the on-screen phrases: “Reject San Francisco Radical Kamala Harris.”
Trump additionally posted a two-and-a-half-minute video that options information protection of the federal search of his Mar-a-Lago resort in August 2022 and his indictments by the Justice Division. Trump repeatedly asserts on the marketing campaign path that he’s a sufferer of what he calls “political persecution,” and the video seems to amplify that declare.
“I by no means thought something like this might occur in America. The one crime that I’ve dedicated is to fearlessly defend our nation from those that search to destroy it. The extra {that a} damaged system tells you that you simply’re fallacious, the extra sure you have to be that you should preserve pushing forward,” Trump says within the voiceover.
The video additionally contains strains which are staples of Trump’s marketing campaign speeches, together with: “They need to take away my freedom, as a result of I’ll by no means allow them to take away your freedom. They need to silence me, as a result of I’ll by no means allow them to silence you. They’re not coming after me. They’re coming after you, and I simply occur to be standing of their approach.”
Trump additionally reposted a message from his marketing campaign’s official X account selling his Monday night time interview on the platform with Musk.
“It is going to be the interview of the century!” the all-caps put up reads.
The final time Trump was energetic on X was to put up a photograph of his mugshot from August 24, 2023, after he was processed at an Atlanta jail within the Georgia election subversion case. Within the meantime, his social media web site of desire has been his personal Reality Social platform.
Trump on Monday also posted a video that reveals him strolling down a hallway over audio of remarks which were part of his marketing campaign stump speeches: “That is the ultimate battle. With you at my aspect, we’ll demolish the deep state. We are going to expel the warmongers from our authorities. We are going to drive out the globalists. We are going to forged out the communists, Marxists and fascists. We are going to throw off the sick political class that hates our nation. We are going to rout the pretend information media. And we’ll liberate America from these villains as soon as and for all.”
And in one other put up, Trump requested, “Are you higher off now than you had been once I was president?”
“Our financial system is shattered. Our border has been erased. We’re a nation in decline. Make the American Dream AFFORDABLE once more. Make America SAFE once more. Make America GREAT Once more!” he wrote.
This story has been up to date with extra info.