WATCH: House Democrat Gerry Connolly Hijacks Twitter Hearings to Show Trump Admin Sought to Censor Tweets
Rep. Gerry Connolly took the Congressional hearings ostensibly designed to out alleged first amendment transgressions by Twitter’s supposed democratic-leaning tilt of the progressive social media giant to show that it was actualy the Trump administration that first reached out to delete a mean tweet.
A clear indication of the political goal of the hearings was evidenced by Rep. Jim Jordan and his questioning of former Twitter employees in a fiery manner during Wednesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing on the social media platform’s temporary suppression of the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story.
Connolly tipped his hand at the outset of his allotted time when he opened with “My, my, my. What happens when you hold a hearing, and you can’t prove your point?”
He then cited House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer’s opening statement “that it’s wrong for the government to call Twitter and say, take down a tweet,” before asking former Twitter exec Yoel Roth if he heard Comer correctly. After Roth concurred, Connolly described a back-and-forth between former President Donald Trump and musician John Legend and his wife, Chrissy Teigen.
“On September 8th, 2019, at 11:11 p.m., Donald Trump heckled two celebrities on Twitter, John Legend and his wife, Chrissy Teigen, and referred to them as the musician John Legend and his filthy mouth wife and quote, mistakenly responded to that email at 12:17 a.m.,” Connolly said. “And according to notes from a conversation with you, Mr. Overall, his counsel, your counsel, the White House, almost immediately thereafter contacted Twitter to demand the tweet be taken down. Is that accurate?”
After further back-and-forth and Roth’s eventual confirmation, Connolly continued, saying, “My, my, my. Do you ever think it’s appropriate for the president of the United States to direct or otherwise influence a social media company to take down its content?”
Connolly’s point here, of course, is that House Republicans are on a white-hot trail to try to prove that Biden asked for Twitter to reach out for content to be removed. However, the most notable evidence occurred during the presidential campaign when he and his reps were NOT part of the government. Also, the material asked to be deleted was reportedly naked photos purloined from a hard drive copy of what most believe to be Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Watch above via CSPAN.
