CNBC host tries to get Palantir CEO to side against Rubio, Musk on European speech — but gets a surprise response

Palantir CEO Alex Karp lambasted Germany for trying to shut down speech against massive migration in Europe after a CNBC host tried to get him to side against right-wing political groups.

Karp was promoting his new book about Western values on CNBC's "Squawk Box" when he made the comments in response to a charged question by Andrew Ross Sorkin.

'You're being turned into a product by a certain sector of the left because you're not allowed to talk about facts.'

"You lived in Germany for half your life, and there is a big debate going on about the politics in Germany right now. You're also Jewish. And there is support — [State Sec.] Marco Rubio and Elon Musk and others are very supportive of the alt-right movement in Germany," said Sorkin.

"While there have been questions about their association with, their supporting Nazis and other things, I'm curious where you land on that," he continued.

"I don't want to go into the technical weeds here," Karp responded, "but the real problem in Germany is that somehow the small portion of Germans that believe you cannot talk about migration without being a bigot — which is about probably 15%. Ninety percent of them vote for the Green Party — have somehow tricked the larger parties into saying they will only vote for things if the far right doesn't vote with them."

Karp explained that this "trick" allowed the far left to shift the debate over migration into a stranglehold and shut down free speech. Karp said German citizens are not allowed to openly discuss that Afghani immigrants in Germany are 70 times as likely to commit certain crimes as German citizens.

"This is the weird thing," he continued. "There's a lesson in this book, which is do not allow yourself to become a product of people you may tacitly agree with. So I'm sympathetic with nondiscrimination. I don't believe in discrimination across any variable. But you're being turned into a product by a certain sector of the left because you're not allowed to talk about facts."

Karp went on to say this is the reason many in Germany are turning to right-wing parties and compared it to divisiveness in the U.S.

"We're not allowed to admit — we're not allowed to do true-false. Like, I agree with this person, I don't agree with this person. We literally have to say anything that's ever been uttered from this person in the whole time has to be wrong!" he said animatedly.

"Including border, defense — and this is happening in every Western country," Karp added.

He reiterated that it made sense for the small minority of far-left-wing groups to push extremism but that extremism is not reflective of what most of society wants.

"None of us want that society, and it's not bigoted to say, 'Wait a minute, this is not working!'" he concluded.

The cross-Atlantic debate about free speech over migration was sparked after Vice President JD Vance scolded European leaders on the issue at their Munich Security Conference.

That portion of Karp's interview was widely circulated on social media, but other portions are available on the YouTube channel for CNBC.

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