The Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government had their third hearing on March 30 to try and prove collusion between the Biden administration and social media companies in censoring conservative voices. This hearing was examining the Missouri v Biden civil case which was filed by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana in May of 2022.
Those attorneys general, Eric Schmitt of Missouri and Jeff Landry of Louisiana, provided five minutes of testimony each and were immediately dismissed by the Republican chair of the Committee Jim Jordan after their testimony. This action led to Democrats disagreeing with Representative Lynch of Massachusetts calling for a vote to adjourn. Rep. Jordan did not honor this request, he ignored Lynch and moved on to the final Republican witness for his opening testimony.
Schmitt and Landry gave extremely inflammatory testimony regarding efforts by the Biden administration to silence conservatives like Tucker Carlson, Tomi Lahren and Robert Kennedy Jr. Landry suggested additional readings for the Democratic members that included the Missouri v Biden lawsuit and a satirical pamphlet called “The Censorship Enterprise.”
The excuse given by Congressmen Jordan and other members of the Republican party for dismissing the witnesses without allowing questions, was that these two witnesses were extended the same courtesy as other members of Congress who spoke in front of the committee; that they aren’t required to answer questions. But representatives across the aisle were quick to point out that neither of these men are members of Congress. Throughout the hearing, Democratic members continued to bring up the extreme accusations thrown at them by Landry and Schmitt and some even stated that the witnesses were afraid of questions and that Representative Jordan allowed them to “scurry away.”
The Republican committee members responded to those questions with accusations of censorship. Rep. Lynch wanted to strike the two witnesses’ comments from the record because they were outrageous and untested. The Republicans then began shouting about “silencing” and “censorship.” Lynch responded by stating that he isn’t trying to silence anyone, just following normal procedure. “It’s ironic that we started this with the pledge of allegiance but then we turned around and eviscerated what would protect rights. The American people shouldn’t have to rely on information if it’s not tested.”
The last Republican invited witness was John Sauer, the Special Assistant Attorney General for the Louisiana Department of Justice. With a backdrop of two people wearing “Ashley Babbitt Was Murdered” shirts behind him, Sauer quickly dove into a litany of hypothetical imaginings of a world where the government controls every aspect of communication. Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz of Florida called Sauer out for his participation in the Trump administration war games. She claimed that he was an active participant in working with attorneys general across the country to overturn the election results of 2020.
Representative Wasserman-Schultz had a recording of a robocall that was sent out before January 6, enticing people to come to the capitol that Sauer had a hand in. Representative Gerry Connolly of Virginia even presented an email from Sauer to attorneys general across the country including Schmitt and Landry, the witnesses who ran off earlier, to work together to create a lawsuit to overthrow the results of the election. That lawsuit ended up leading to Texas suing four other states over their elections. Rep. Wasserman-Schultz noted that it was amazing to have a witness who actually had weaponized the federal government.
The hearing went on for about four hours. With one Republican member asking Sauer if he believed that the Biden administration’s attempts to censor conservatives was comparable to the German Stasi Police — the Nazi regime’s security. Sauer wholeheartedly agreed that that was an appropriate comparison.
The Democrats’ witness, Matthew Seligman, a Professor of Constitutional Law and a disinformation expert, was asked about this comparison. He said, “it is an inappropriate and inaccurate comparison.” Then he clarified the allegations of the witnesses’ lawsuits. That all it is is vague talk about “pressure campaigns” and “emails.”
Seligman was also asked by several Democratic members what he thinks of the chair of the committee, Jim Jordan, demanding that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg provide documents regarding the current Grand Jury investigation, and now indictment, of former President Donald Trump. Seligman went on to explain how acts like that undermine the rule of law and democracy in general.
This is the third in an undetermined series of hearings. So far they have brought up the same few emails from Biden officials to Twitter that say things like, “Hey just flagging this for you.” Or President Biden saying to a reporter that social media companies are “killing people” due to the spread of misinformation during the pandemic. They continue to point to tweets about vaccine conspiracies and Dr. Fauci being taken down. They’ve had witnesses like Matt Taibbi who talked about the Twitter files that he put together using documents given to him by Twitter CEO Elon Musk, and they continue to compare the Biden administration, and fact-checking companies to the Nazis.
Three days after three children and six adults were killed in yet another mass shooting, this time at a Christian school in Tennessee, in a political climate where books are being banned, songs about kindness are being banned, art is being banned, the Republican led House of Representatives continues to host day long hearings on the weaponized censorship of Twitter. Sometimes using personal examples of their own tweets being taken down. The Democrats on the committee continue to question what any of this is even for and Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana responded in a not so veiled threat, “Stay tuned, there is much more to come on this committee.”
