After a very public feud, Elon Musk has apologized for calling a British diver involved in the Thai cave rescue a “pedo guy.”
Vernon Unsworth, who played a key role in the rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave system in Thailand, had called a submarine built by a team of engineers from Musk’s companies, SpaceX and Tesla, a “PR stunt” that had “absolutely no chance of working.” He told CNN that Musk could “stick his submarine where it hurts.”
He said it not me! 😅
Cave rescuer slams Elon Musk’s submarine idea, says “He can stick his submarine where it hurts,wouldn’t have made the first 50m, Just a PR stunt” -CNN $TSLA
(Repost for twitter video h/t @TezzlaCFO) pic.twitter.com/GHWiILrPq5— Brodie Ferguson (@brodieferguson) 13. Juli 2018
Musk initially responded in a Twitter tirade, but apologized in a pair of tweets today (July 18), noting his words were “spoken in anger.” “Unsworth said several untruths & suggested I engage in a sexual act with the mini-sub, which had been built as an act of kindness & according to specifications from the dive team leader,” Musk said.
In the now-deleted tweets, the billionaire had suggested Unsworth was a pedophile. He wrote, “Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it,” and replied to another Twitter user, “Bet ya a signed dollar it’s true.”
Following those comments, Tesla’s stock fell by as much as 3% on Monday—erasing $2 billion from the company’s market capitalization—after Unsworth said he was considering suing Musk for libel, before shares recovered yesterday.