'You Proud Of The Work You Did?': Warren Davidson Grills Ex-Biden Assistant

5 months ago

At Wednesday's House Weaponization of the Federal Government Committee hearing, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) questioned Robert Flaherty, former Assistant to the President and Director of Digital Strategy at the Biden White House, about his contact with social media companies.

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Transcript

00:00Mr. Flaherty, are you proud of the work you did?

00:05Yes, Congressman.

00:06Why?

00:07Did you feel like you exerted some influence over people?

00:09Congressman, I'm proud of the administration's efforts to save lives.

00:12I didn't ask about the administration.

00:14I asked about you.

00:15Are you happy?

00:16Do you feel like you did a good thing?

00:17Congressman, I'm very proud of the work we did in the administration to save lives.

00:20So the means did justify the ends, right?

00:23So it was okay that we curtailed freedom because the outcome was desirable.

00:28Congressman, I want to dispute the characterization of our work.

00:30Is that what the First Amendment says?

00:31Is that what it says?

00:32We certainly were not censoring, threatening, or providing consequences to companies.

00:35We were raising up—

00:37I think the American people will conclude that you were, in fact, doing that.

00:40And I think once we get to share all the transcripts with the public,

00:44I think the unredacted versions will make it very clear that's exactly what you were doing.

00:49And that's what the social media companies knew you were doing and why they conformed.

00:54And recently, the House gave the executive branch, even in the Senate, and now it's a law,

01:00we gave the administration, the executive branch, even more authority.

01:04Recently, the House voted to ban TikTok.

01:07While Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party are a threat,

01:10I voted against this ban because I have serious concerns that banning social media platforms

01:15is more harmful to free speech in America than to China.

01:20We have a White House that is engaging in coercive activity

01:23so that they can actively control the narrative on social media

01:26and, frankly, on an online bookstore, the most ubiquitous one in the world.

01:31This is the same kind of stuff the Chinese Communist Party does,

01:34and they heavily regulate media and online speech.

01:38I'm extremely worried that a platform ban provides another point of leverage

01:43for the executive branch, for government, to exercise coercion over private companies

01:48to effectively censor Americans and their First Amendment-protected right to speech.

01:54We will not counter China by becoming more like China,

01:57yet that's exactly what we've done with this TikTok Trojan horse.

02:02Congress effectively granted a rogue White House the same control over internet activity

02:06that the Chinese Communist Party exercises in China.

02:10It is a grave mistake, and I hope we correct it,

02:13because we can see here today that we already have an administration

02:17that tried to launch a disinformation governance board.

02:20Were either of you part of those discussions?

02:23I was not part of anything like that.

02:25Congressman, I was not part of this.

02:27This is heavily related to the activity that you guys were engaged in,

02:30so when you say we at the very highest levels, would that include President—

02:34I mean, the highest level at the White House is President Biden, right?

02:37Congressman, again, it shouldn't surprise anybody that we were, as an administration,

02:42focused intently on getting the American public vaccinated.

02:45This is a thing that everyone at every level of the administration is focused on.

02:49So, again, the means justify the ends.

02:51We can cancel speech and violate it.

02:53I think it's a shame that this has happened, and I hope we criminalize it,

02:57because you should not be able to violate the First Amendment rights of American citizens

03:01and not have consequences for it.

03:03My time has expired, and I yield.

'You Proud Of The Work You Did?': Warren Davidson Grills Ex-Biden Assistant

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