Arizona House GOP to probe Gov. Katie Hobbs' assault on the First Amendment? Seriously?

Arizona House Republicans, those stalwart supporters of the First Amendment, have announced a plan to study government censorship.

It’s the latest in a series of strategies aimed at sticking it to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, who apparently is Arizona’s version of those Chinese censors who banned the subversive likes of Winnie the Pooh and Peppa Pig.

Hysterics about government censorship aside, it’s clear a study of the First Amendment -- along with another notable assault on our foundational rights -- is desperately needed at the Arizona Capitol.

Consider the House Republicans’ creation of the committee to roast Hobbs, the Ad Hoc Committee on Oversight, Accountability and Big Tech.

The committee was announced last week on social media — in a post that restricts who can reply to only those from whom the Republicans want to hear.

It's fitting that Rep. Kolodin leads the panel

It will be chaired by Scottsdale Rep. Alexander Kolodin, a member of the hard-right Arizona Freedom Caucus.

“Fighting for the First Amendment is an American’s highest calling,” he declared. “With this new committee, I am excited to have the opportunity to do so on behalf of the people of Arizona.”

Kolodin was one of the attorneys who represented Reps. Paul Gosar, Mark Finchem and Anthony Kern when they unsuccessfully sued then-House Minority Leader Charlene Fernandez, claiming defamation.

This, because she dared to exercise her First Amendment right to ask federal law enforcement to investigate their involvement in events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Kolodin’s committee was announced on Thursday, on the very day that a Republican political operative exposed Hobbs for supposed censorship.

They want to rake Gov. Hobbs over the coals

Brian Anderson, a member of former Gov. Doug Ducey’s administration who now operates as Arizona Capitol Oversight, released a dozen or so requests from then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and her staff, aimed at remove certain social media posts between 2020 and 2022.

“ABUSE OF POWER!” screamed the Arizona Freedom Caucus in response to Anderson’s exposé.

Most of the requests asked the social media companies to remove factually incorrect accusations of election fraud.

Things like that crafty scheme to get Republicans to mark their ballots Sharpies thus invalidating their votes.

Sharpiegate was quickly debunked, yet the “conspiracy” continued to spiral on social media.

One request showed a Hobbs staffer flagging as misinformation a Nov. 12, 2020, Facebook post by then-Rep. Kelly Townsend, explaining the many reasons why people distrusted the election results.

Among them, Townsend cited a then-three-year-old Hobbs tweet as evidence that she couldn’t run the election in a “non-partisan, non-biased manner.”

Hobbs, meanwhile, says tweet lacks context

In August 2017, Hobbs tweeted “@realDonaldTrump has made it abundantly clear he's more interested in pandering to his neo-nazi base than being @POTUS for all Americans.”

Facebook properly declined to remove Townsend’s post.

Hobbs, meanwhile, made a similar complaint to Twitter about others quoting her 2017 tweet.

“The alt-right got a hold of a 3-year-old tweet on my account and have been sending harassing, abusive, and threatening tweets and direct messages for the last 2 days,” she reported.

Hobbs told The Arizona Republic’s Stacey Barchenger that reposts of that 2017 tweet failed to mention the context, that it came in response to Trump’s refusal to condemn the white supremacists who attended a “Unite the Right” rally that turned deadly in Charlottesville, Va.

That 2017 tweet, too, remains on Hobbs’ personal account. As it should.

Why we know this isn't a serious inquiry

And now we have a Ad Hoc committee assigned to make sure everyone in the state knows that Hobbs is channeling her inner Xi Jinping.

House Speaker Ben Toma, R-Glendale, said the panel will “examine government censorship and conduct of state executive officials.”

I’m not sure how a state official asking a private company to delete a post and that company declining to do so rates as government censorship.

Wouldn’t government censorship involve an offer the company couldn’t refuse?

As Hobbs' requests draw scrutiny: Lawmakers form censorship panel

But again, this committee doesn’t strike me as a particularly serious inquiry, concerned with serious things like protecting our foundational rights.

If it was, wouldn't the Ad Hoc Committee on Oversight, Accountability and Big Tech also would be investigating people like Queen Creek Rep. Jake Hoffman, who chairs the Freedom Caucus.

Or Glendale Sen. Anthony Kern?

Instead we have Kern, of all people, delighted to tout the big reveal that Hobbs tried to silence a few tweets.

“Katie doesn’t like the 1st Amendment,” Kern proclaimed. “Executive Abuse of position.”

Want to fight censorship? Do this first

Sounds odd when you consider the abuse of position of Kern, Hoffman and nine others who tried to silence a few million voters. This, by falsely declaring to Congress in 2020 that they were duly elected to cast Arizona’s electoral votes for Donald Trump.

While the House Republicans are studying the assault on the First Amendment, perhaps they also should study the assault on democracy.

Since that won’t happen, maybe they could at least contemplate their own muzzling of the First Amendment, by refusing to allow people to respond to their social media posts.

Or perhaps the various legislators who have a curious tendency to block people from even reading their social media posts, which is a particularly handy way to block them from exercising their First Amendment right to respond.

Yep, I’m looking at you, Sen. Wendy Rogers, and you, too, Sen. Shawnna Bolick and all the others who like to talk.

You just don’t want anyone who might disagree with you to talk back.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona House GOP's defense of the First Amendment is laughable