Free Speech Advocate Kevin McCarthy Wanted Twitter To Ban More Republicans

Igor Bobic
·2 min read
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Holding Big Tech accountable became a big plank in the GOP after social media companies banned some Republicans, including former President Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), for spreading dangerous falsehoods about COVID-19 and the 2020 presidential election.

Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the House, has been particularly vocal about the issue, backing legislation to crack down on tech companies.

“Diversity of opinion is the lifeblood of our democracy. And yet that fundamental American value is under assault by Big Tech — entities that have amassed more power and more control over more speech than any other institution in history,” the House minority leader lamented in a statement after Twitter “permanently suspended” Greene this year.

“Their recent decisions to silence Americans — including a sitting member of Congress and renowned physicians — who share views different from the political and media elite have real world costs,” he added.

But McCarthy seemed to hold the opposite view a year earlier, in the days following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

According to an upcoming book by two New York Times reporters, McCarthy privately told fellow GOP lawmakers that he wanted social media companies to strip more Republicans of their accounts, as Twitter and Facebook had done with Trump.

“Can’t they take their Twitter accounts away, too?” McCarthy is quoted as saying.

McCarthy’s spokesperson denied the reporting, telling the Times that McCarthy “never said that particular members should be removed from Twitter.”

But Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns said Thursday they had obtained an audio recording confirming McCarthy’s comment.

McCarthy’s credibility is seriously in question after his flat denial of another comment, about Trump’s culpability over the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, fell apart on Thursday. McCarthy told GOP lawmakers he intended to recommend Trump resign — comments that also were recorded.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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