Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was caught on a hot mic using the bathroom during a wild X Spaces livestream alongside the likes of Elon Musk, far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Andrew Tate and other controversial personalities.
The hilariously awkward flub by Ramaswamy occurred as Musk interviewed Jones – the InfoWars host who claimed the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax. Hours earlier, Musk made a widely-criticized decision to reinstate Jones’ X account.
The sound of splashing liquid interrupted Jones, who was in the middle of a rant about what he called a “corporate world government whose aim is depopulation.”
“Someone’s got their thing open peeing! Someone’s got their phone open in the bathroom,” Jones yelled to an audience of tens of thousands of listeners. The livestream’s host, social media influencer Mario Nawfal, tried to alert Ramaswamy to what was happening.
“That’s your phone, Vivek. I’m not able to mute you. Vivek?”
The embarrassing moment prompted laughter from Musk and others on the call.
“Well I hope you feel better now,” a giggling Musk said.
“I feel great, thank you. Sorry about that, guys,” Ramaswamy said.
The incident drew an array of comments from bemused listeners, with one quipping that Ramaswamy was “literally draining the swamp” and another joking that the event had truly been a “live stream.”
As of Monday, the X Spaces event had drawn more than 9.1 million listeners, according to the site’s data.
Other polarizing figures who attended the call included far-right figures such as Jack Posobiec, Michael Flynn and Jackson Hinkle.
Musk reinstated Jones’ account after posting a poll last Saturday asking X users to weigh in on whether he should be allowed access to the app. More than 70% of the poll’s respondents said they thought Jones should be reinstated.
At one point during the live stream, Musk asked Jones to explain himself regarding “the whole Sandy Hook thing.”
Jones, who was ordered last year to pay $1.44 billion in damages to the families of the victims in the Sandy Hook mass shooting, initially heaped praise on Musk for supporting free speech before delivering a long-winded explanation.
“I had a very small operation and did not even understand how powerful I was,” said Jones, who said he believes the mass shooting happened.
“I apologize on every show,” Jones added. And I’ll say it again, I apologize that I just gave my commentary because I’m really just a guy, a talk radio host, so I do that on the Internet. I just take calls and interview guests and that I play devil’s advocate. And if that hurt people’s feelings, I apologize. But I did not send people to your houses. I did not pee on graves. I don’t know any of the stuff that went on.”
The decision to reinstate Jones’ account could further inflame tensions with corporate advertisers – many of whom have pulled spending on X due to concerns about the spread of antisemitic content on the platform.
The mass exodus recently prompted Musk to tell advertisers, including Disney CEO Bob Iger, to ‘go f—k yourself.’”
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt was among those who criticized Musk for unbanning Jones.
“We disagree profoundly with the decision to reinstate Alex Jones’ X account. Put plainly: you’re not restricting free speech when you keep someone from yelling “fire” in a crowded theater,” said Greenblatt.
“Similarly, @X wasn’t limiting free speech when it refused to provide Jones a platform for his slanderous lies and dangerous conspiracy theories, which spark paranoia and incite violence,” he added.
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