'What Happens When You Hold a Hearing and You Can’t Prove Your Point'
Republican-led inquiry on online censorship, Hunter Biden goes off the rails
Another oversight hearing, another huge embarrassment.
About the only thing that can be said so far for Chairman James Comer's nascent leadership of the House Oversight Committee is that it seems to be profiting the American popcorn industry.
That's because so far, oversight hearings this year have been all entertainment; but no actual, well, oversight.
Such was the case Wednesday, when the panel took a morning to indulge in some of the far-right's favorite — but utterly baseless — conspiracy theories, namely social media “censorship” as well as Hunter Biden and his laptop.
Rep Lauren Boebert (R-Colo), for instance, attacked Twitter for the company's handling of her account.
“And now we see here that Twitter staff said the visibility filter on my account excluded me from top searches, prevented notifications for non-followers, and much more. This is considered an aggressive visibility filter. You silenced members of Congress from communicating with their constituents. You silenced me from communicating with the American people over a freaking joke,” referring to a tweet suggesting Hillary Clinton wanted to rig the 2020 election. “Now, who the hell do you think that you are? Election interference? Yeah, I would say that that was taking place because of you four sitting here. The Hunter Biden laptop story was suppressed. A sitting member of Congress was suppressed, a sitting president was banned from Twitter.”
The president's son and his laptop have become a focal point of Republican investigations because it contains a trove of documents and pictures about Hunter Biden. News organizations have confirmed the legitimacy of the laptop abandoned at a Delaware repair shop in 2019, but investigations continue about what the contents mean.
Democrats called the hearing “silly” and a “bizarre political stunt” because Twitter is a private company free to make its own decisions about what to publish. Democrats also questioned the basic allegations against Biden stemming from the laptop as “categorically false.”
Democrats on the committee often debunked the wild claims being made by their Republican colleagues, one-by-one.
Freshman Rep Daniel Goldman (D-NY) took apart Comer's obsession over the Hunter Biden laptop story.
“And Chairman Comer, I notice you blew up the cover of that New York Post story, which I appreciate you doing that because I’d like to dig into this article,” said Goldman, who, before running for office, served as lead counsel in the first impeachment of former president Donald Trump and as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. “The very first paragraph says Hunter Biden introduced his father to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company. That is false. 100-percent false.”
However, the session's coup de grace came from Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-Va) who discredited the entire hearing by interrupting Rep Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who was raking former Twitter executive Yoel Roth over the coals for supposed infractions that even Jordan couldn't prove.
JORDAN: “You know what I think happened, Mr. Roth? I think you guys got played. I think you guys wanted to take it deep down. We saw that the chairman put up, where you said, you know, everyone in the White House is a fascist. I think you guys wanted it to be taken down. I think you meet with these guys every week, we know that’s been established in the Twitter Files, you had weekly meetings with Mr. Chan in the run-up to the election, they sent you all kinds of emails, they sent you documents on the super-secret James Bond teleporter, you get information on that. I think you guys wanted to take it down. I think you guys got played by the FBI. And that’s the scary part, because we had 50 — I mean, this to me is the real takeaway — 51 former intelligence officials, five days after you guys take down the Hunter Biden story and block the New York Post account, five days later, 51 former intel officials sent a letter and they say the Hunter Biden story has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation. The information operation was run on you guys, and then, by extension, run on the American people. And that’s the concern. And to Mr. Raskin’s point that you guys aren’t bound by the First Amendment because you’re a private company, okay, maybe so, but you’re — and your terms of service don’t have to comply with the First Amendment. Would that be right, Mr. Roth? They don’t have to? You’ve said as much in your testimony.”
ROTH: “My understanding of the First Amendment is that it protects people and businesses from government, not — “
JORDAN: “I understand. In your terms of service. So here’s what I want to know. Here’s what I want to know. Is this a violation of the First Amendment, when the government, Mr. Chan again, is sending you an email saying, ‘We think these accounts need to be looked at because they violate your terms of service?’ That’s a different standard. So you got the government saying your terms of service, which don’t have to comply with the First Amendment, but the government is saying, ‘We don’t think these accounts comply with your terms of service, please take them down. You see a problem there, Mr. Roth?”
ROTH: “Mr. Chairman, I’m seeing a flashing red light. I’m happy to answer the question. Do I think that that’s a valuable use of the FBI’s time? No, but I don’t see, in a request for review, a problem under the First Amendment, no.”
JORDAN: “I sure do. I thank the gentleman, I yield back.”
COMER: “Chair recognizes Mr. Connolly for five minutes.”
CONNOLLY: “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My, my, my, what happens when you hold a hearing and you can’t prove your point.
(Laughter)
We heard from the chairman in his opening statement that it’s wrong for government to call Twitter and say, ‘Take down a tweet.’
Did I hear that correct, Mr. Roth.”
ROTH: “That was my understanding, yes.”
CONNOLLY: “Yeah.”
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