Lindell said he would be willing to meet with Musk “any time of day or night” during an appearance on ex-Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast on Tuesday. The pillow tycoon’s account was banned in January 2021 for repeatedly pushing unsubstantiated claims concerning a “stolen” 2020 presidential election, which was at the time in violation of the platform’s policies against misinformation.
When asked by Bannon if Twitter had ever asked for “information about the machines” that he claims “flipped” votes from Republican to Democratic candidates in 2020 and in this year’s midterms, Lindell said that he “would welcome” such a query but had not yet heard from Twitter. Bannon then suggested a “mano a mano” live Twitter session between Musk and Lindell.
“Would you commit, right now, to do an open live Twitter with Elon Musk?” asked Bannon. “He could play 20 questions, he could rip your face off. You present your evidence, and he takes you on mano a mano [with] your evidence about what you believe is the voter fraud related to machines and other things in the 2020 election, sir?”
“Absolutely,” Lindell responded. “I would fly to him, do whatever it takes. I would hand- deliver it on a silver platter and say, ‘here you go, look at it. You’re a very smart man. Look at this and do whatever you want to do with my Twitter account. But for sure I would like you to say, hey, this guy got banned and he’s banned right now for no reason.’”
“And I would do that any day, any time,” he continued. “Any time of day or night. And I’ll drop everything I have to do that, Steve, because I believe it’s very important to our country … If you’re gonna have a platform of free speech now without this cancel culture, you can’t just say anybody that talked about machines can’t be on it.”
While he may be willing to meet with the Twitter owner at a moment’s notice, Lindell told Newsweek via text message that he had “never talked to Elon Musk” previously.
Since taking the reins of the platform, Musk has reinstated a number of high-profile accounts that were previously banned, mostly notably Trump’s. Lindell is one of a handful who remain barred.
Conservatives including former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany have called for Lindell and others such as ex-Trump adviser Roger Stone to have their accounts restored.
Lindell briefly reemerged on Twitter with a new account this year, only to be banned again within hours for evading his previous suspension.
“I did that in May because there were fake Mike Lindell accounts all over Twitter and they were not taking them down when we asked them too[sic],” Lindell said in a text on Tuesday.
“I knew you attack journalist[s] would make it a big story and you did!” he added. “They took all of the fake ones down including the one I set up to make the announcement.”
When told that a significant number of fake Mike Lindell accounts remained active on the platform, Lindell said that he would “reach out again to Twitter to take down the fake mikes if they won’t let the real one there.”
Newsweek has reached out to Twitter for comment.
