The authorities’s interactions with social media firms and requests that they take away sure content material through the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 election quantity to authorities censorship, presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. informed a House subcommittee.
During an at-times testy listening to of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, at which the scion of the Kennedy household was invited to testify by Republicans alongside the writer of the New York Post article regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop computer, RFK Jr. repeatedly defended each his previous document and up to date speeches.
“Debate — congenial, respectful debate — is the fertilizer, it’s the water, it’s the sunlight for our democracy. We need to be talking to each other,” Kennedy stated Thursday, earlier than holding up a sheet of paper. “This is a letter that many of you signed, many of my fellow Democrats. I’ve spent my life in this party. I’ve devoted my life to the values of this party — 102 people signed this. This itself is evidence of the problem that this hearing was convened to address.”
In his hand was a letter calling on House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to withdraw the invitation prolonged to Kennedy to testify earlier than the subcommittee concerning his experiences with social media and tech firms, a few of whom have eliminated his capability to make use of their platforms.
“This is an attempt to censor a censorship hearing,” Kennedy stated.
A watchdog group requested the committee’s Republican chairman, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, to drop the invitation to Kennedy after he shared an argument he’d heard made that COVID-19 may need been engineered to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese individuals.
“Mr. Kennedy has repeatedly and recently spread vile and dangerous antisemitic and anti-Asian conspiracy theories that tarnish his credibility as a witness and must not be legitimized with his appearance before the U.S. Congress nor given the platform of an official committee hearing to spread his baseless and discriminatory views,” the letter learn.
McCarthy stated he didn’t agree with Kennedy’s latest remarks however would however let the person communicate.
“I disagree with everything he said. The hearing that we have this week is about censorship. I don’t think censoring somebody is actually the answer here,” McCarthy informed reporters on the U.S. Capitol.
Kennedy additionally defended his marketing campaign for the White House, which is seemingly backed by a Super PAC referred to as “Heal the Divide” which claims he’s the one one that can bridge the divisions between the nation’s splintered political teams. Kennedy denied ever listening to of the political motion committee or realizing the individuals behind it.
“It’s not a Super PAC that I’ve endorsed and it’s not one, as I said, that I’ve ever heard of,” he stated.
U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch defended the actions of the FBI and different companies in working with tech firms to take away content material they deemed misinformation or a threat to the general public, saying the listening to was nothing greater than an try and distract.
“This committee has come to embody weaponization itself, misusing congressional oversight to protect Donald Trump in an attempt to divert attention from the multiple federal and state criminal investigations surrounding President Trump’s misconduct in office,” Lynch stated.
Kenedy added his household has lengthy defended the First Amendment proper to free speech.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”