joining me now is the new yorker contributed writer, ronan farrow. joining -- >> -- >> it's expensive, it's fascinating. he quoted a former -- administrator who said, there's only one thing worse than a government monopoly, that is a private monopoly that the government is dependent on. how dependent is the government, on elon musk? >> and first, an interesting aside, that former nasa administrator is jim bridenstine, who is a trump appointee, a former pretty far-right congressman, someone who is very free market in his general disposition. it's very interesting to have him speak so frankly, about the risks of the government receding, and too little regulation. he actually explicitly says if we concentrate this much power in private individuals, private companies, we may wind up with another -- titanic submersible situation, but i a faster scale. so that's the threat we're talking about, when we do become too beholden to a private interest, and to unable to regulate it. and the answer to your question is, we are very, very beholden in multiple sectors

well, ronan farrow in a new piece for the new yorker, notes that the u.s. technology, putting them at the mercy of, well, he's impulsive behavior. for example, starlink is being used to support critical communications on the front lines of the war in ukraine. but according to the new yorkers new yorker's ronan farrow when pentagon official says he has spoken, personally, with vladimir putin. ronan farrow also appeared earlier on "cnn tonight" and detailed musk's critical role in ukraine. >> the fact that elon musk has this network of satellites and mobile state stations called starlink was a godsend. and the people who fund-raise for that and helped get those units to ukraine did not think at the outset, they told me, of the fact that elon musk was going to have so much control. and what we found as that conflict ground on is that he really was able to flip a switch and use geofencing, cordoned off areas where, for instance, russia did not want troops advancing. so, his role became very political very fast. >> i want to bring in cnn media analyst and axios

pull starlink out of ukraine, the undersecretary told the reporter the journalist who wrote this ronan farrowto prolong on ukraine. >> farrow reported that musk's influence within the u.s. government is widespread and that over the last two decades, quote, musk sought out business opportunities in crucial areas, after decades of privatization, the state has receded. the government is reliant on him but struggles to respond to his risk taking, brinksmanship. "the new yorker" contributing righter ronan farrow joins us now on his latest article. elon musk shadow rule, ho how the u.s. government came to rely on the tech billionaire and is d struggling to rein him in. there is a line here where you are, you know, trying to get some questions from the pentagon about emergency management and the spokesman says that -- and this is a quote here -- wie'll talk to you if elon wants us to. there is a degree of deference here from the pentagon? >> that's a small manifestation of the balance of power we are talking about between the private individual, who is so wealthy and powerful in different fields, an

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according to new yorkers ronan farrow, one pentagon official said he had spoken personally with vladimirtin. farrow appeared on cnn tonight and detailed musk's critical role in ukraine. the facts that elon musk has a set of satellites named starlink were a god send. and those didn't think of the outset of the fact that elon musk was going to have so much control. and what we found as that conflict ground on is he really was able to flip a switch and used geofencing. and cordoned off where russia didn't want troops advancing. his role became very political very fast. >> want to bring in cnn media analyst sara fisher. "the new yorker" article goes into great details about this reliance and the big question people have. whertharticle talks about the degree of dependency that the u.s. has on musk. are we in too deep here? >> we're in an unprecedented situation. typically, the u.s. government is not the go-between between an allied force of ukraine and the nato ally and a private u.s. citizen. we never really experienced that type of situation before. the starlink example is critical. and put