Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan got heated at Thursday’s hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government after a Democratic congressman said there are “limits” to free speech and the First Amendment.
Democratic New York Rep. Dan Goldman argued the committee is “chilling the federal government” to “undermine” the severity of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
“We all agree with the First Amendment, but the problem is that the First Amendment is not absolute. It does not protect any single thing anyone says, and there are limits, and that’s important,” Goldman said. “And what this committee has been trying to do for the last year and a half is to chill the federal government for monitoring what is going on on social media and otherwise out there so that misinformation and disinformation can run rampant on Elon Musk’s social platform and every other social platform so that they, the Republicans, can benefit from it in the November election. That’s why this committee exists and we have gotten no evidence to support any of these allegations.”
Jordan pushed back against Goldman’s allegations of the committee trying to “chill the federal government.”
“I think the gentleman from New York just said that we’re trying to chill the federal government? I don’t know if it’s ever been said that way, it’s always ‘the government trying to chill Americans’ rights and chill Americans. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Jordan said. “But you know who was opposed to how the FBI and the Bank of America did this thing when they asked for this information? You know who was opposed to it? Three FBI agents. The guys on the case…”
“So even the FBI who systematically violated Americans. It was the FBI who said if you’re a pro-life Catholic, you’re an extremist, if you’re a parent going to a school board meeting, you’re a terrorist. Even the FBI said this is ridiculous. And they pulled back. Three agents testified. And somehow…the government is the one that chills Americans’ speech when they pressure Big Tech to censor, when they ask banks to give them, that’s chilling speech and we’ve seen it first. Dr. [Jordan] Peterson has seen it in his own country [Canada] and now it’s coming here. That’s what we’re concerned about.”
Jordan referred to the committee sending a subpoena to Bank of America for allegedly providing customers’ financial information to the FBI. He further noted the FBI’s involvement in targeting Catholic who attend Latin mass and the suppression of the New York Post’s reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
A redacted memo from the Richmond FBI field office targeted Catholics attending Latin masses over the concern of them being susceptible to “anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ and white supremacist ideology.” (RELATED: ‘It’s Political Motivation’: Jim Jordan Confronts FBI Director On Targeting Traditional Catholics)
The Twitter Files, released by journalist Matt Taibbi, found that the FBI warned Twitter executives of possible state actors attempting to interfere in the election. The New York Post’s story on the laptop was then labeled “Russian disinformation,” leading the outlet’s account to be locked for several days.
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