CBS correspondent jokes Elon Musk is like a 'Bond villain' amid Twitter drama, gets pushback from Gayle King

A CBS News correspondent received pushback from "CBS Mornings" co-host Gayle King for a tongue-in-cheek comparison between Tesla CEO Elon Musk to a "Bond villain."

Musk has sparked an avalanche of news this past week, beginning with an SEC filing revealing he purchased 9.2% stake in Twitter, Inc., making him the largest shareholder in the social media giant. He was then set to join Twitter's board of directors, which he apparently declined according to an announcement made Sunday evening. 

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The tech mogul also deleted a series of tweets about Twitter in recent days, including a cryptic emoji tweet he shared early Monday morning. 

Many speculate Musk's sudden reversal from joining the board of directors signals that he may be pursuing a hostile takeover of Twitter instead.

On Monday, CBS News correspondent Vladimir Duthiers attempted to explain Musk's rationale or perhaps a lack thereof. 

"So we were sort of joking with Shawna Thomas, our executive producer, and a lot of people think Elon Musk is sort of like a Bond villain now, Duthiers said. "That is a very Bond villain move to pull."

"He's not a Bond villain," Gayle King pushed back. "He just thinks outside the box. It’s never boring. He’s always got a master game plan."

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"CBS Mornings" co-host Tony Dokoupil seemed to side with Duthiers, questioning whether Musk actually has a "master plan."

"He spent the weekend also disparaging and criticizing Twitter, pointing out that some famous people don’t tweet that much," Dokoupil said. "And I don’t know, do you want that out of your biggest shareholder?"

"Elon doesn’t just do stuff randomly, I don’t believe that," King doubled down. 

Musk has been an outspoken critic of Twitter, openly advocating that the social media platform should adhere to free speech principles.

Several members of the media, however, have been sounding the alarm about Musk's growing involvement with Twitter. 

Bloomberg Opinion senior columnist and MSNBC political analyst Tim O'Brien called Musk's moves towards Twitter "bad news" for free speech.

"That’s worrisome because it's not ideal to have a free speech absolutist who isn’t absolutely in favor of free speech at the helm of — or even close to — a media company," O'Brien wrote. "And he’s in it to scare Twitter’s management. Somebody who has complained that his free speech is being ‘chilled’ should, perhaps, be sensitive to those nuances."

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CNN's left-wing media correspondent Brian Stelter said there's a "fear" about Musk becoming a Twitter shareholder. 

"There's interest in billionaires, there's celebration of the Musk. There's also fear, I think, sometimes or wariness of - okay, so here's the richest man on the planet who just bought a big chunk of one of our most important communications tools," Stelter said. "He's also one of the biggest owners of satellites in the world. So he's incredibly powerful, incredibly, I don't know, am I allowed to use the word ‘strange’ when talking about Elon Musk?" 

MSNBC political analyst Anand Giridharadas compared Musk's investment towards Twitter to "arsonists cosplaying as firefighters."

An op-ed published in the Washington Post bashed the billionaire's bought-in "welcome" to Twitter, calling it "highly disconcerting — a slap in the face, even."

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"Musk’s appointment to Twitter’s board shows that we need regulation of social-media platforms to prevent rich people from controlling our channels of communication," tech investor and former Reddit CEO Ellen K. Pao wrote in the Post. 

The Washington Post was panned by critics who pointed out that the paper was owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos.