Robert of kennedy junior and others testified about censorship and free speech. During the hearing, mr. Kennedy address the antisemitic and antivax allegations against him are related to the comments on the covid 19 pandemic. Speech. Mr. Jordan the subcommittee will come to order. We welcome everyone to todays hearing. I recognize the gentlelady from florida to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Jordan i thank the lady for leading us. Without objection, mr. Roy will be permitted to participate in this hearing. The chair recognizes himself for an Opening Statement. On the first day of this administration, january 23, 2021, the white house sent an email to twitter, wanted to flag the beloved tweet and wonder if we can get moving on the process having it removed asap, in all caps. That third day, what did that tweet say . Tweet from mr. Kennedy, hank aarons tragic death is among the vaccine to inspire other plaque americans to get the vaccine. What is interesting about the email that the white house sent flagging hank aaron misinformation. Misinformation is when you dont have the facts right and saying is things that arent true. When you look at mr. Kennedys tweet, there was nothing factually inaccurate. Just pointing out facts and yet the white house on the and yet the white house on the third day was trying to actually 1 04 a. M. On january 23, 2021, 37 hours into the administration. They were trying to censor mr. Kenney. I find that interesting. The irony here is trying to censor the guy whos actually their democrat primary opponent. Go figure. Three months earlier, the f. B. I. Helped censor our second witness miss morriss story, her story in the New York Post about emails on the hunter biden laptop and we know the f. B. I. Censored her because of work this committee has done to uncover what happened. And because of our third witness, mr. Sauer, the lawsuit that he argued on behalf of florida, excuse me, louisiana and missouri in federal court in a case that they got the amazing ruling from on july 4, just two weeks ago. You go back to in the course of that investigation course of that lawsuit from missouri and louisiana joel roth, former head of site integrity at twitter in his sworn declarations brought out in that lawsuit. His sworn declaration in front of the federal elections commission. He said this during weekly meetings, federal Law Enforcement agencies communicated that they expected hackand leak operations before the 2020 president ial election likely in october. These expectations discussed throughout 2020 were discussed throughout 2020. I also learned in these meetings that a hackandleak operation would involve hunter biden. Now think about it weekly meetings throughout 2020 hackandleak operation in october involving hunter biden. Five key things they pointed out throughout that year and guess what, it all happens. It happens just like they predicted. How did they know, how did they know it was going to happen like that . Because they had the laptop, they had the laptop for 10 months before ms. Morris story on october 14. Her story breaks that day, that same day, october 14, 2020 twitter meets with the f. B. I. , specifically the Foreign Influence Task task force at the f. B. I. Later that same day, again, the day her story comes out, facebook also meets with the f. B. I. The head of the Foreign Influence Task force is now lord demlo and this committee interviewed her just three days ago. And what an interesting interview that was, we asked her about these meetings. She stated in the first meeting, the fbi and twitter in that first meeting, she said someone from twitter asked, is the laptop real . They asked the f. B. I. That story broke. It was big news. Twitter asked the fbi, theyre right there in front of them. Theyve been prepping them for a year. They asked the fbi is the laptop real . Conveyed to the committee this week, an f. B. I. Agent answered, yes, it is. Another f. B. I. Agent, a lawyer very quickly followed up with no further comment. So again, heres the scenario, the story breaks, twitter is meeting with the f. B. I. Later that same day, someone from twitter asked, is this story real . Is the laptop real . The fbi answers . Yes. And then quickly followed by again, all this conveyed by ms. Demlo. The fbi lawyer says no further comment in the later meeting with facebook. Again that same day, the fbi was asked the same question and this time the fbi gets their story straight. Ms. Dehmlow is the only one who comments and she says, no comment. Obviously, by the second meeting, the fbi had coordinated and she conveyed this in her deposition that they had deliberated what were they were going to respond when that question was asked . So think about this after being repeatedly told a hack and leak russian info operation is coming for a whole year. It arrives on october 14 in the form of ms. Morris story, an accurate story. Our government knows the laptop is real. They know its not a russian information and they know the story is true. But when directly asked, they say no comment. And of course, ms. Morris story is censored. Visibility filtered, the term the Tech Companies kwlus. Use. No, you cant direct message, you cant send it. Keeping the American People from valuable information. Just days before the most important election, we have election for commander in chief election for the presidency of the United States. Thats why ms. Morris is here today. She knows what its like to be censored. Its why louisiana, missouri filed the case. Its why mr. Sauer argued the case. And frankly, its why mr. Kennedy is running for president. Its to stop, help us and expose and stop whats going on in this government. Pressuring private entities to censor americans. I think in ms. Morris testimony which i read this morning, big tech, Big Government working together, big media working all together to censor american speech. So we look forward to your testimony over the next few hours, but i will tell you this. Just get ready. I think these guys ms. Morris, get ready. Last time we had a journalist sitting there, they were trying to get them to divulge their sources so be ready, but i know you can handle it. We appreciate your willingness to come forward. We appreciate your willingness to fight for the First Amendment with that. Amendment. With that i yield to the Ranking Member for an Opening Statement. Ms. Plaskett thank you, mr. Chair. And good morning to everyone. Just have some administrative matters first. I want to introduce into the record page 55 from the committees interview with f. B. I. Employee Laura Dehmlow, who you just spoke about, which took place on july 17, 2023. In that line, she says the question was asked, ok, if someone were to leave here today, were to leave this interview and were to suggest or imply that when you said the laptop was real, that it meant that the fbi had affirmatively determined in october, 2020, that the laptop belonged to hunter biden, that the contents belonged to hunter biden and that the contents had not been manipulated in some way. Would they be representing what you said . Correct answer, by ms. Dehmlow. They would be representing what i said because i dont have much knowledge of that. Because this committee likes to misrepresent or leave off complete sentences of what individuals said, id like to introduce this into the record. Chair jordan without objection. Ms. Plaskett thank you. And as to no comment by an f. B. I. , thats usually what they say when theres an Ongoing Investigation, particularly when its a couple of days before an election. But why are we here . Why . You know, thats been the question that quite a number of people have been asking me. Why are you having this hearing . What does this have to do with inflation . What does this have to do with the cost of living . What does this have to do with the everyday lives of americans . The thing that the Republican Party said that they would focus on if they had control of the house. Why would the Republican Leadership and the Committee Majority give a hearing and a platform to the witnesses today, specifically to mr. Kennedy, a man who has recently claimed that covid19 is targeted to attack caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and chinese. And before that in his film, medical racism, the new apartheid, that film stated that covid19 vaccines do not work for black children because of their quote, kick ass kind of immune system, that hyper, superhuman, subhumankind of language. And he also said in hitlers germany, you could cross the alps to switzerland, you could hide in an attic like anne frank did, to imply jews in nazi germany had more freedoms than unvaccinated americans during the covid19 pandemic. Now many of my republican colleagues across the dais will rush to cover that they have mr. Kennedy here because they want to protect his free speech, that they do not believe in american censorship. This is not the kind of free speech that i know of, the free speech that is protected by the constitutions First Amendment, but free speech is not an absolute. The Supreme Court has stated that. And others free speech that is allowed, hateful, abusive rhetoric, does not need to be promoted in the halls of the peoples house. This republican charge of free speech is being used by republican members to promote quasiscience, things such as the replacement theory that says that brown people are replacing good white americans here in this country. Lets not remember that this Country First belonged to brown native American People. Its a rallying cry for bigotry and hate. There are members of the republican conference who also frequently suggest that americans have to deal with covid rules as the same as oppression of nazi germany. Indeed, some have even questioned whether the holocaust took place. We have staffers who openly follow White Supremacy without any condemnation of the republican conference. Some give it chuckles, slaps on the back, shrugs, all under the mantra of free speech. Its a free country. You absolutely have a right to say what you believe, but you dont have the right to a platform, public or private. We dont have to give one of the largest platforms of our democracy, congress, this hearing. Our right does not mean that we as americans are not free from accountability and thats whats distressing about this hearing, even knowing what they know about mr. Kennedys hateful, evidencefree rhetoric. And even though theyve invited any number of witnesses to make their point. Speaker mccarthy, chairman jordan affirmatively chose to give this a platform. They intentionally chose to elevate this rhetoric to give these harmful, dangerous views a platform in the halls of the United States congress. Thats endorsing that speech. Thats not just supporting free speech. They have cosigned on idiotic, bigoted messaging. This is a conscious choice. Theres no doubt as to why theyre making the choice. And its not to guard free speech or to ensure equality for all. All of this, as youll hear throughout this hearing, is to show us by their conduct over and over and again that any attack on joe biden to get donald trump back in the white house is what they need to do. They think that by hurting the Biden Administration by putting mr. Kennedy on display, they have said that hes only running for censorship. I think people run for the president of the United States because they want to advance the American People. Over the last eight months, the extreme maga majority has spent its time not to mention tons of taxpayer money, something that theyre always so cautious about, on baseless investigations that have gone nowhere all in an effort to serve as a legislative arm of the Trump Campaign and discredit any agency that dares to hold the president or those that work with him or who have the same ideals that he has accountable for those that are such as White Supremacy, such as election deniers, such as insiders and those who engage in the riots of january 6. Truth be told, i have no idea whether the chairman actually believes any of the stuff. I dont. Its not a question ive asked him or one thats necessarily even important. But its clear that one aim of his investigation is to bully tech and Media Companies into turning a blind eye to rightwing extremist conspiracies from qanon to the great replacement theory as they spread across their platforms. Even when those theories violate very basic terms of service about deliberate disinformation and promoting violence. Lets not even think about what happens in 2024 with russian trolls, iran, china trying to interfere in our elections and the bullying extends far beyond Tech Companies. Witness after witness have testified to the treatment they received from chairman jordan and his team. One of our earliest witnesses, Nina Jankovic told the committee about receiving thousands of Death Threats and being told to go into hiding while she was pregnant with her first child after chairman jordan first posted a doctored video of her and when politico asked mr. Jordan about the threats his office responded, she deserves to be held accountable. Anyone who doesnt agree with their point of view deserves whatever hatred and threats are thrown at them. Now, im across the hall from mr. Jordan. And several months ago, i saw somebody who seemed to be threatening to his office and the Capitol Police were moving them away and i was grateful that they were doing that because i dont want anyone to harm him or his staff for their rhetoric, for the things that they say. Thats inappropriate. Thats unconscionable. Another witness, this one, a current member of federal Law Enforcement who spent years protecting americans from harm described receiving threatening mail not just to her work office out to her home address. Someone out there has figured out where this person lives and is targeting them based on disinformation this committee itself spread. She summed it up in a single sentence. Im frankly scared. And why does the chairman send this movement to intimidate witnesses to change their behavior . Of course, to make it less safe for Law Enforcement officers to enforce the law and less likely that researchers and companies will combat the spread of hate and violence online. One witness, an academic Whose Organization helped identify disinformation threats to election processes and procedures described the threat sent to him and his family in detail. When the republican staff asked him if he would consider performing the same research for 2024 elections, he said, quote, since this investigation has cost the university now approaching seven figures in legal fees, its been pretty successful, i think, in discouraging us for making it worthwhile for us to do a study for 2024. Another witness, a researcher who analyzed massive data sets to assess the way that rumors spread online was explicit and personal about the effect of the threats on her life. I mean, quite frankly, i dont have kids and if i did, i would no longer be doing this work. Im worried about my students. I know theyre worried about doing this kind of work because of these kinds of threats and what they see that im going through. And at the same time, i just think the work is so important and i want to make sure it keeps going. So i dont, so i dont want to step off that stage. I dont want, i think we have like special skills that can be really useful and helpful and make our, our country grow stronger and this is having a chilling effect. And its not just me, other researchers are experiencing the same thing. These are the fruits of this committees majority investigations. If maga republicans agree with you, youre giving a platform to spread any Conspiracy Theory no matter how harmful, and if they disagree with you, you get Death Threats until you have to go away. These folks have a plan. They want to force social Media Companies to promote conspiracy theories because they think thats the only way their candidate can win the 2024 election. They want to bully the experts into abandoning their work on disinformation to pave the way. They want to give expression to the most vile sorts of speech here in this Committee Room because it prepares the ground for their own conspiracy theories and pseudoscience and they apparently dont care how many people are hurt or die as a consequence of their actions either through lies about vaccines or threats to the safety of witnesses because nothing, nothing is more important to them than power. Its a free country. Both chairman jordan and mr. Kennedy are free to say whatever they want. Its the chairmans right to promote any of the views he wants to promote. But that freedom doesnt mean that the rest of us cant see what theyre doing and demand Something Better from our representatives, from my colleagues, from this congress. Be better than the witnesses, my colleagues. Lets be better. Lets get about the business, the real business of the American People and stop the division. The divisiveness that is being promoted through this committee, i yield back. Chair jordan id ask unanimous consent to enter into the record from page 29 of ms. Dehmlows testimony from three days ago. Question, do you recall whether any of these social Media Companies you were meeting with . Ask you any questions about the laptop story . I do was her answer. And what is your recollection . Somebody from twitter essentially asked whether the laptop was real. And one of the fbi folks who was on the call did confirm that quote. Yes, it was before another participant jumped in and said no further comment. Question. Do you recall who from the fbi said it was real . I do. And who was that person . Ill have to get back to you. Without objection, well enter that into the record. Want to start with mr. Emmer em. Shes editor at breitbart news. She previously served as the deputy politics editor at the New York Post where she authored the post coverage of the hunter laptop and his contents in 2020 maya wiley is the president and ceo of the Leadership Conference on civil and human rights. She previously served as counsel to new york city mayor, bill de blasio and at the American Civil Liberties union and the naacp Legal Defense and education fund. We welcome you as well, miss wiley. And mr. John sauer is the special assistant attorney general for the Louisiana Department of justice and he is one of the lead lawyers in the missouri v. Biden, that i referenced in my Opening Statement. He previously served as Deputy Attorney general for special litigation with the Missouri AttorneyGenerals Office and solicitor general of missouri. He clerked for judge Michael Luttig and justice antonin scalia. And then our final witness is mr. Kennedy. I will turn to our colleague mr. Roy, member of the Judiciary Committee and waived on to the subcommittee to introduce mr. Kennedy. Mr. Roy i thank the chairman. Robert f. Kennedy jr. Is the son of former attorney general robert f. Kennedy and the nephew of americas 35th president , john f. Kennedy. Third of 11 children. He went to some view mr. Kennedy through his last name but that does a tremendous disservice to his lifes work, whether you agree with it or not. Out of law school mr. Kennedy built his career as an environmental lawyer, representing new york city environmentalists and environmentalists across the globe in numerous legal battles. His work culminated on the new york watershed agreement focused on the cleaning of new york citys waterways. After the 2008 election, politico reported that president elect obama strongly wanted mr. Kennedy to go to the Environmental Protection agency. He went to an organization to address childhood chronic disease and toxics exposures. I assuming being a father of seven and bun one of 11 children himself fuels his interest in Childrens Health. Following the 2016 election, mr. Kennedy met with thenpresident elect trump to discuss his poe temperatures for a committee to examine vaccine safety and scientific integrity. Their conversation also touched on the c. D. C. And ways to increase conflicts. Mr. Kennedy announced his campaign for president of the United States. He stated, quote, my mission over the next 18 months of this campaign and throughout my presidency will be to end the corrupt merger of state and Corporate Power thats threatening to impose a new kind of corporate futilism in our country, end quote. It is for this that mr. Kennedy finds himself receiving the scorn of both the political left and right. Because if one dares challenge the orthodoxy of the powers that be, then one is their enemy. As a graduate of the university of virginia, mr. Kennedy no doubt knows the following quote. For here we are afraid for here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead. Thomas jefferson. That truism was lost during the covid pandemic. Individuals receiving scorn simply for asking questions. People being silenced for challenging the status quo. These are the kinds of questions that should have been publicly debated in this hearing. This hearing is focused on that truth and we welcome mr. Kennedy. Chair jordan i thank the gentleman. Mr. Kennedy, we are glad you are here. We will now proceed with Opening Statement. Before i do i want to introduce a former colleague, a good friend of mine, Dennis Kucinich, who served in the congress for 14 years, i believe, great buckeye that we welcome dennis and i know eliz bot is here as well. We appreciate your work, dennis, and your commitment to the First Amendment. Mr. Kennedy, you are recognized for your Opening Statement. Mr. Kennedy thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Chair jordan his mic is not on. Mr. Chairman, are you going to swear in the witnesses . Chair jordan stand, please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm do you swear or affirm under the penalty of perjury that the testimony youre about to give is true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief so help you god . Let the record reflect that the witnesses answer in the affirmative. Thank you. You may be seated. Mr. Kennedy, you are now recognized for your Opening Statement and then well go right down the line. Excuse me. Point of order. I know witnesses usually have five minutes. I see 10 minutes on the board. Is it going to be 10 minutes . Chair jordan five minutes. Ms. Plaskett ive seen you gavel down chair jordan former Democrat Members of congress and im saying in the past history. Ms. Plaskett ok. Watch the time for all the witnesses. Chair jordan if you want to cut him off and censoring him you go do it. Ms. Plaskett why dont you threaten the witness so that they can not want to be a witness. Chair jordan mr. Kennedy is recognized for his Opening Statement. Well give him five or minutes, more or less, and move on to the next one. Mr. Kennedy, go right ahead. Mr. Kennedy mr. Chairman. Ms. Wasserman schultz mr. Kennedy, can we put five on the clock, not 10 . Chair jordan put five on the clock and start it running. Mr. Kennedy thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to start i want to put aside my written statement for a moment and address one of the points that was brought up. I think an important point by the Ranking Member that this body ought to be concerning itself with the issues that impact directly the American People. The rising price of groceries, 76 over the past two years were basic foodstuff. The war in oou crane, the inflation issues, the border issues. Many, many other issues that concern us all as a nation. We cant do that without the First Amendment without debate. When i gave my speech, my announcement speech in boston two months ago, youtube i talked about all those issues. I focused on grocery i focused on the fact that workingclass people can no longer afford to live in this country. I talked about inflation, all the issues that deeply concerned you and that youve devoted your career to alleviating those issues. Five minutes into my speech when i was talking about paul revere youtube deplatformed me. I didnt talk about vaccines in that speech. I didnt talk about anything that was a very important subject. I just was talking about my campaign things, the conversation that we ought to be happy with each other as americans. But i was shut down. And that is why the First Amendment is important debate. Congenial, respectful debate is the fertilizer. Its the water, its the sunlight for our democracy. We need to be talking to each other. Oh, this is a letter. And many of you signed. Many of my fellow democrats. Ive spent my life in this party. Ive 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. This is an attempt to censor a censorship hearing. The charge is in this. And by the way, censorship is antithetical to our party. It was appalling to my father, my uncle, to f. D. R. , to harry truman, to thompson jefferson. As the chairman referred to it as the basis for democracy. It sets us apart from all of the previous forms of government. We need to be able to talk and, the First Amendment was not written for easy speech. It was written for the speech that nobody likes you for. I was censored not just by the democratic administration, i was censored by the trump administration. I was the first person censored by the, as the chairman pointed out by the Biden Administration. Two days after he came into office. You ordered a truthful and by the way, they had to invent a new word called malformation to do to censor people like me. If there was no misinformation on my Instagram Account, everything i put on that account was cited and sourced. The peerreviewed publications or government databases, nobody ever has ever pointed to a single piece of misinformation that i publish. I was removed for something they called malformation. Malformation is information that is true, but it is inconvenient to the government that they dont want people to hear. And its antithetical to the values of our country. After i announced my presidency, it became more difficult for people to censor me outright. So now im subject to this new form of censorship which is called targeted propaganda where people apply pejoratives like antivac. Ive never been antivaccine. But everybody in this room probably believes that i have been because thats the prevailing narrative. Antisemitism, racism. These are the most appalling, disgusting pejoratives and theyre applied to me to silence me because people dont want me to have that conversation about the war, about groceries, about inflation, about the war on the middle class in this country that we need to be having. And, and by the way, i want to say this while im on the record that in my entire life and why im under oath, in my entire life, i have never uttered a phrase that was either racist or antisemitic. I have spent my life fighting my professional career, fighting for israel, for the protection of israel. I have a better record on israel than anybody in this chamber today. Im the only person who has publicly objected to the 2 billion payout that the Biden Administration is now making to iran, which is a genocidal program. Im the only one whos objected to that. I fought more ferociously for israel than anybody, but i am being censored here through this target through smears, through misinterpretations is what it said, through lies through association, which is a tactic that we all thought we had been discredited and dispatched with after the Army Mccarthy hearings in the 1950s. But those same weapons are now being deployed against me to silence me. I know many of the people who wrote this letter. I dont believe theres a Single Person who signed this letter who believes that im antisemitic. I do not believe that. There is no evidence of that. I want to say something. I think thats more important than it goes directly to what you talked about. Ranking member, which is the, the need this toxic polarization that is destroying our country today. And how do we deal with that . We are more, this kind of division is more dangerous for our country than any time since the american civil war. And how do we deal with that . How are we gonna, every democrat on this committee believes that we need to end that polarization. Do you think you can do that by censoring people . Im telling you, you cannot. That only aggravates and amplifies the problem. We need to start being kind to each other. We need to start being respectful to each other. We need to start start restoring the comedy to this chamber and, and to the rest of america, but it has to start here. My uncle Edward Kennedy has more legislation with his name on him on it than any other senator in the United States history. Why is that . Because he was able to reach across the aisle because he didnt deal any insults because he didnt try to censor people. He brought home people who were antithetical as to what he believed in. He came home almost every weekend with people like orrin hatch to our house at the compound. At that time orrin hatch to me was like darth vader because i was an environmentalist. And i was saying, why, why is teddy bringing this guy home . But he knew that he was effective because he understood in a that comity and respect and kindness and compassion and empathy for other people is the way that we have the only way to restore the function in this in this chamber. But more importantly, today, we need to give an example in the leadership of our country of being respectful to each other. If you think i said something thats antisemitic, lets talk about the details. Im telling you all the things that im accused of right now by you and in this letter are distortions. Theyre misrepresentations of. I didnt say those things. Theres fragments that i said, but i denounce anybody who is, who uses the words that i have said to imply something that is negative about people who are jewish. I never said those things. I want to point out also that the chairman pointed to Dennis Kucinich right behind me. There is no two people in the country who feel differently about more differently about american politics than these two people. And yet, they were friends. Dennis attended his childrens basketball games, attended his daughters wedding. This is what we need, how we need to start treating each other in this country. We have to stop trying to destroy each other, to marginalize, to vilify, to gaslight each other. We have to find a place inside of ourselves, of light, of empathy, of compassion. And above all, we need to elevate the constitution of the United States which was written for hard times and that has to be the premier compass for all of our activities. Thank you very much. Chair jordan thank you. Ms. Plaskett mr. Chairman. Id like to raise a point of order. Pursuant to house rule 11, clause 2, which mr. Kennedy is violative of i move that we will move into executive session because mr. Kennedy has repeated made despicable antisemitic and antiasian comments, as recently as last week. Rule 11 clause two says whenever it is asserted by a member of the committee that the evidence or testimony at a hearing may tend to defame degrade or incriminate any person or it is asserted by a witness that the evidence or testimony that the witness would give at a hearing may tend to defame, degrade, or incriminate the witness. And it goes on. Mr. Kennedy, among many other things, has said, i know a lot now about bioweapons. We put out hundreds of millions of dollars into ethnically targeted microbes. The chinese have done the same thing. In fact, covid19, there is an argument that it is ethnically targeted covid19 attacks, certain races disproportionately, the races that are most immune to covid19 are chair jordan is the lady making a motion or a speech . Ms. Wasserman schultz i made a motion to move into executive session because mr. Kennedys testimony mr. Chairman, i move to table. Chair jordan the gentleman from kentucky has moved to table. Ms. Wasserman schultz i ask a roll call vote on the motion to table. Chair jordan the question is on the motion to table. The gentlelady has asked for a roll call vote. The clerk will have to come in and well call the roll on the motion to table and then we can get back to testimony. I think the witnesses can sit in the chairs behind. Chair jordan ill leave that up to the clerk. If the clerk is comfortable with that. Why dont we do that . Maybe we can go right down here, mr. Chairman, point of order. Is it the custom of this committee to censor viewpoints that we disagree with . Thats not a point of order. Chair jordan were waiting for the clerk. Waiting for the clerk. The clerk will call the roll. [clerk calling roll] mr. Stewart. Mr. Stewart votes yet. Mr. Stepanek votes yes. Mr. Gaetz. Mr. Johnson of louisiana. Mr. Johnson much louisiana votes yes. Mr. Armstrong votes yes. Mr. Steube. Mr. Bishop. Mr. Bishop votes yes. Mrs. Cammack. Mrs. Cammack votes yes. Ms. Hageman. Ms. Hageman votes yes. Ms. Plaskett. Ms. Plaskett no. I want to follow the rules that the republicans made at the beginning of this conference with these house rules so no. The clerk ms. Plaskett votes no. Mr. Lynch. Mr. Lynch votes no. Ms. Sanchez votes no. Ms. Ms. Wasserman schultz . Ms. Wasserman schultz no to allowing a witness to degrade and violates the rules and not have his testimony and degradation amplified either than given in executive session. The clerk ms. Wasserman schultz votes no. Mr. Connolly votes no. Mr. Garamendi no. Mr. Allred. Ms. Garcia. Ms. Garcia votes no. Mr. Goldman. Mr. Goldman votes no. Chair jordan mr. Gates. The clerk mr. Gaetz votes aye. Chair jordan the clerk will report. The clerk mr. Chair, there are 10 ayes and eight noes. Chair jordan ms. Morris, you are recognized for five minutes. Ms. Morris thank you. Thanks so much for inviting me. My name is mr. Emmer em, politics editor at breitbart. Im here today because i published a series of news stories three years ago in october of 2020 about Hunter Bidens now infamous laptop, also known as the laptop from hell, which is seen as some of the skad luss reporting of the last decade. What was more scandalous than the reporting itself though was the fact that it exposed the unholy alliance between the Intelligence Community, social media platforms and legacy media outlets. At the time, i was deputy politics editor at the New York Post. And my reporting showed that despite then candidates joe bidens repeated and furious denials, he was apparently involved in the foreign business deals of his family. Over several days just weeks before americans would vote for their next president , i revealed verified authentic emails from the biden scions hard drive showing ukrainian Business Partners receiving leaks from the obama white house. I documented an off the books meeting between then Vice President biden and a Ukrainian Energy executive and introduced the world to the big guy who got action on a deal with cefc, china energy company. The post published exactly how the material for the reporting was obtained, even identifying our sources as well as a federal subpoena showing the fbi was in possession of the material. The story was based on and had been since december of 2019. But when the stories appeared on social media that morning, the venue where millions of americans go to find their news and editors to get their angles within hours, the reporting was censored on all major platforms on the basis of being called hacked or russian disinformation. Twitter refused to allow users to share the link to the stories. Ban the links from being shared in private messages. A policy by the way thats used to clamp down on child porn and lock the post out of its verified account. Facebook said it would curb distribution and reach of the links on its platform. However, the stories were not based on hacked materials nor were they russian disinformation. And despite those claims appearing to come out of thin air at the time, we would eventually learn that they actually didnt come out of thin air at all. On october 19, five days after the post began publishing, politico ran a story, headline Hunter Bidens story is russian disinfo. Dozens of former intel Officials Say god, i cant even say that with a straight face, you know. Politico printed a letter completely uncritically from veteran members of the u. S. Intelligence community. Falsely claiming that the post expose has all the classic earmarks of a russian information operation. My god. [laughter] most notable among the signatories of that letter were jim clapper, former d. N. I. , michael hayden, former c. I. A. , john brennan, former c. I. A. , despite having such damaged credibility following their participation in the russia collusion Conspiracy Theory. A few days later on october 22, when biden appeared in the second president ial debate and was confronted with the facts of the post reporting. He said to trump, quote, 50 former National Intelligence professionals said this what hes accusing me of is a russian plot but it was not. And he knew that. Now fast forward to this year, three years later. Just last spring, house investigators revealed it was a call by now secretary of state Antony Blinken to former acting c. I. A. Director Michael Morell that prompted the spy letter published by politico which bypassed Agency Approval processes that would have been normally applied. It is also now known that ahead of my reporting, federal agencies were priming social Media Companies to execute an operation to discredit it. According to internal documents released by elon musk, upon his acquisition of twitter, the fbi and other Intelligence Community members essentially directed the platforms censorship operation in part externally by working with top management and in part internally by social Media Companies hiring eye popping numbers of agency alumni journalist Michael Schoenberger reported based on documents he obtained from musk that during all of 2020 the fbi and other Law Enforcement agencies repeatedly primed twitter executives to dismiss reports of Hunter Bidens laptop as a russian hack and leak operation and feds arranged for topsecret security clearances to be granted to twitter management and even had encrypted messaging network set up which they dubbed a virtual war room. To this day, hundreds of people from the Intelligence Community work at social Media Companies and over the last few years, my reporting has been confirmed by virtually every mainstream news outlet from the Washington Post to the New York Times to politico when the stakes were nothing, by the way, two years later. No one denies that the laptop is real, that the origin story is exactly what i told you in the first place. This elaborate censorship conspiracy wasnt because the information being reported on was false. It was because it was true and it was a threat to the Power Centers in this country. What this relationship between the u. S. Government officials and american corporations represent is an unprecedented push to undermine the First Amendment, the right to think, write, read, say whatever we want and how we respond will determine whether we see a free press as inalienable or as optional. Thanks. Chair jordan thank you, miss morris. Mr. Sauer, youre recognized for five minutes. Sauer sauer thank you mr. Sauer thank you, mr. Chairman and members of this subcommittee. On july 4, 2023, independence day, judge terry a. Doughty of the u. S. District court for the Western District of louisiana, this injunction prevents them from urging, encouraging, pressuring, or endeucing in any manner the removal, delesion der deletion, production of free speech on public social media platforms. It includes 82 pages of detailed factual findings supported by 577 citations of the evidence which is drawn from roughly 20,000 pages of the federal governments own emails and communications with social media platforms and six fulllength depositions. In his recently filed stay motions, the government has hardly bothered to dispute any of these factual findings. They have granted expedited argument briefing and argument on august 10. Contrary to some recent suggestions, a temporary administrative stay is, quote, routine practice, in the fifth circuit. Thats a direct quote from the recent decision in rea re abbott. Today, i want to draw six opinions drawn from the louisiana opinion. First, the Louisiana Court found, based on overwhelming evidence, that federal officials are the cause of the censorship of the viewpoints they disfavor. The government likes to claim that social media platforms acting on their own would apply their policies and censor all this content anyway. This is demonstrably incorrect. Again and again. They found they would not suppress this speech but for the fact that the federal officials were pushing it. The deplatforming of alex berenson, the throttling of Tucker Carlsons content, the silencing of the socalled disinformation dozen, which includes mr. Kennedy, the suppression of much of the socalled borderline which is, quote, often true content on facebooks platforms, the censorship of the hunter biden laptop story, and much more, all these were suppressed because of the efforts of federal officials. Second, the scope and reach of federal censorship is staggering. As the Louisiana Court repeatedly found it, affects, quote, millions of social media posts and speakers all across america. It affects virtually every american who reads, listens, engages, or posts on social media about disputed social and political questions that federal officials stuck their fingers into. Third, federal censorship is ongoing and it shows no signs of relenting. Federal officials censorship efforts are in full swing, and theyre expanding to new frontiers. Left unchecked, federal censorship will reach virtually any disputed social and political question over which federal officials want to impose their power. Fourth, the louisiana opinion shows that federal officials are most eager, most focused on silencing truthful speech and to muzzle the most influential critics of the administration and its policies. Tucker carlson, alex berenson, and many others were targeted, not because what they were saying was necessarily false, but because it was the most effective criticism of the narrative mind that the administration was pushing at the time. Censorship is not about truth. It is about power, preserving and expanding the power of the censors and the political narratives they prefer. Fifth, federal officials are deeply intertwined with what others call the censorshipindustrial complex. The Louisiana Court made very detailed findings about the close connections between many federal officials and that masssurveillance and masscensorship enterprise that calls itself the Election Integrity partnership and the virality project. Not just cisa officials, but white house, state department, and Surgeon General officials have deep ties to the enterprise. As the Louisiana Court found, cisa and e. I. P. Were completely intertwined. Sixth, federal officials dont just dictate the outcomes of specifically contentmoderation decisions. They also directly induce changes to the contentmoderation policies, policies at major social media platforms to ban disfavored viewpoints inness have a. And seventh, the federal censorship enterprise has succeeded in transforming online discourse by rendering entire viewpoints virtually unspeakable on social media, which is the modern public square. This ongoing distortion of the most fundamental american freedom, free speech, is the most intolerable under the First Amendment. Thank you. Chair jordan thank you. Ms. Wiley, youre recognized. Wooil ms. Wiley chair jordan microphone. Ms. Wiley im usually quite loud but thank you for pointing that out. Chair jordan, Ranking Member plaskett, members of the subcommittee, i want to thank you for having me here today. I have introduced written testimony and i did have a summary of my oral testimony and i am going to depart from it after listening to the openings. And these proceedings. This week began the sentencing of Robert Bowers who murdered 11 people, wounded six others because their faith was judaism and because they were in a synagogue to worship. Robert bowers expressed on social media for a very long time deeply antisemitic hateful statements. He did it and used gab which is a platform that was deplatformed by twitter because of its constant space it provided through hate that has actually become embodied in the most violent antisemitic act we know to have happened on our shores. In the history of this country. And i will tell you as a black woman who live through covid in new york city where we watched too many images of refrigerated trucks with the bodies of loved ones because there were too many deaths to accommodate in morgues, that surpassed, surpassed the deaths during the spanish flu, and where in this country we have lost over one million of our loved ones. And for the black community, for the native american community, for so many communities of color, in particular, where our rates of death were three to four times those of some other groups. Three to four times. I want to agree with mr. Kennedy. I want to agree that its incredibly important for us to be kind and respectful to one another. It is incredibly important for us to be able to understand our experiences across our differences and to have a platform for those communications. And it is deeply vital that they be based in fact, not fiction and without regard to the intent or what is in the mind of anyone, which i cannot say, including what is in the mind of any of those who are testifying here today. But what i can say is when you make a statement that suggests that based on race, based on religion, based on anything other than facts that you may have somehow not been targeted but other racial groups have, that by definition feeds into something very dangerous in this country. That is actually impacting lives and in some instances taking them. And what i will say about the opinion in this case, and i am here to talk about missouri v. Biden, is that in this case we can talk all day about the very specific facts, and there is factual inaccuracy in some of the fact statements in judge doughtys opinion. But the most important one is the fifth Circuit Court of appeals, widely, widely believed by all for very good reason to not be out of step with conservative ideology vacated that preliminary injunction. And i want to point to something else, because one of the things that that injunction said was that our government, responsible for Public Health, responsible for national security, which by the way, even under the trump administration, the department of Homeland Security said it is domestic terrorism that is our greatest national threat, that even that it had in the injunction a statement that the federal government could not collaborate or partner or jointly work with institutes, researchers including the stanford internet observatory could not in terms of identifying, understanding, or even talk about the deletion or removal of anything even if, even if that research actually demonstrated that those social Media Companies were violating their own policy in a way that was dangerous for people and for our democracy. So yes, lets be kind, lets be respectful and lets descend into a real discussion of facts where we can disagree about their meaning but not about their existence. Thank you. Chair jordan the gentlelady yields back. Well now turn to fiveminute questions. The chair recognizes the gentleman from north carolina, mr. Bishop for five minutes and we will go a couple rounds here, i think and then they have called votes. So well get the votes pretty quick. But the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. Mr. Bishop thank you, mr. Chairman. Im going to focus on the testimony the chairman made reference to and that the Ranking Member was so concerned with damage control that she opened her comments about it. And id ask staff to put the blowups on the screen as we proceed. And ms. Morris, begin with number one while im getting my first question out. Ms. Morris, in your statement, you had an interesting turn of phrase. You said that no one denies that the laptop is real. What an interesting turn of phrase because thats exactly what twitter was asking about the day your story appeared and it was interacting still further with twitter and with facebook. Ms. Dehmlow testified. Here it son the screen for those who are visual learners like me. Are you familiar with the october, 2020, New York Post story on Hunter Bidens laptop . I am. This is ms. Dehmlow under oath. Do you recall whether any of these social Media Companies you were meeting with, asked you any questions about it . I do. Please proceed to the next slide. And heres how in the same page, it was relayed to me later that somebody from twitter, i dont recall who, im not sure, somebody from twitter essentially asked whether the laptop was real and one of the f. B. I. Folks who was on the call did confirm that, yes, it was, before another participant jumped in and said, no further comment. Proceed to the next slide. So you said he was one example. Do you recall other social Media Companies . Proceed to the next slide . Ms. Dehmlow says i believe facebook, we met with facebook soon thereafter. I cant remember if it was the same day or within a couple of days and they also asked and i said no comment. That was the decision we made in those post meeting deliberations, which is pretty typical, it was an Ongoing Investigation and we dont generally comment on ongoing investigative matters when asked. So ms. Morris, to your point, i think this shows one thing for sure. You credited michael schellenberger. And some of his reporting. One of the things that he asked in one of his twitter file stories was whether the Foreign Influence Task force people, the f. B. I. Folks who were interfacing with the social Media Companies, whether they knew about the hunter biden laptop contents that the f. B. I. Had since december, 2019. So now we know, right . The Foreign Influence Task force knew it was real. And it wasnt just a few people. It was common knowledge. An analyst on that telephone call before they got their act together, admitted that it was real. And then the we also know that the social Media Companies wanted to know if it was real. Of course, they did. Because the f. B. I. Had been telling them for months to be prepared for a hackandleak operation and also to be prepared for something involving hunter biden. Of course, they wanted to know. So what do you think about the fact that the f. B. I. , in response to twitter, told told them it was real . Then they covered that up or stopped. No further comment into facebook with its billions of users said no comment. Were not going to tell you. Ms. Morris yeah. We know that the f. B. I. Knew that it was real. They knew it was real since not just december, 2019, when which is the subpoena that i published is from, which was in the original story. Thanks for the meeting with your father from ukraine story. We published the subpoena. And they had already confirmed though, which we would learn later, they had already confirmed that the laptop was real and the quote, not manipulated in any way, quote, in november of 2019, a month before they obtained the laptop to keep. Thats when they gave the subpoena to John Paul Mack isaac, the owner of the store where hunter biden forgot the laptop. I think this is something that gets glazed over in this reporting. Im so familiar with it its nauseating. Which is that jim baker was the deputy counsel at twitter. If that name isnt familiar, hes the former deputy counsel of the f. B. I. Are we supposed to all figure and pretend he didnt know what that subpoena was when he saw it in the New York Post . Lets not insult our intelligence here and the intelligence of the American People. Obviously he knew what it was. Mr. Bishop point well taken, ms. Morris. My time has expired but what we have always understood, in all likelihood it was true, we now have one more piece of evidence from the folks at the f. B. I. That they that comey interfered in 2016, the director himself interfered in 2020. We still need to know. I yield back. Chair jordan the gentleman yields back. Ranking member is recognized for five minutes. I think well do the Ranking Member and one more and then have to take a break. We talked about the post, its been taken down, i wonder if the post is still there. More importantly, i go back to the fact that we are creating a platform for these for this kind of discussion, not about the censorship. Not about free speech. Ms. Plaskett but the content of some of that speech that we are amplifying in this room. Im appalled and just troubled by colleagues that i have to work with, that these are individuals who would bring a witness who has promoted a video that compared the Covid Vaccine to the tuskegee trials. The tuskegee trials were a very difficult time in black america, where individuals who were already sick, with the disease, were then reviewed, experimented on, who already had a disease. To see how far that disease went. And making the comparison to ma that manipulates and preys on black peoples feelings about the atrocities of the past in order to prevent them from seeking lifesaving vaccines in the present, and knowing that this is dangerous. I cannot also be unaware that this comes from an individual who, by mr. Roys introduction, has. Ive got family members that we all disagree that. Doesnt mean anything. But the fact that he has famously sent requests to a party guest that they have to be vaccinated to come to his party, and id like to introduce into the record a letter from lewisn which states, a law office, that state he is has vaccinated all his children but tells the black community and myself, a mother of five black children, that i should really be careful and not necessarily have the same safeguards to protect my family, my children, from a virus that has killed millions of people because im black. Theres no secret that this is an amplify case of his own platform. You know, im not going to talk about the money that was receive fled Childrens Health defense, from his antivaccine organization, thats responsible for a majority of the false information about their out there about covid. And the notoriety thats gained from it by manipulating black and other vulnerable communities to propagate these pseudosciences. Ms. Wildy, are you a ms. Wyley, are you ms. Wiley, are you aware of the phrase, superhuman yet subhumannization. Ms. Wiley cant say im aware of the phrase but im aware of the viewpoint. Ms. Plaskett can you share what you believe that to men when it comes to black people . Ms. Wiley sadly and unfortunately we have a history in this country where black people were both by law and by social view, viewed as inferior and subhuman. And that there werester y types attached to that that includes all kinds of myths about the ability to disregard both the health needs, health conditions, and disparities that exist for black people and in black communities, to the detriment not only of the health of people who are black but also to Public Health by not taking good sound. Ms. Plaskett and in chattel slavery, you dont have to feed them the same way, because they can take it, they can handle that, they dont need as much. Or now with covid theyve got superhuman genes that they dont need to get the same vaccines. They may be more susceptible if you get vaccines. Ms. Wiley, why do you think someone might choose to target the black community for false information about vaccines . Ms. Wiley i cant say that i can sit in a position to explain why anyone would do that. I can only say that for those who wish to prevent people from getting a vaccine, it was very clear that one of the ways in which you could convince people not to is to play on fears that have basis in historic experience, sadly, and frankly, and i can say this personally, speaking from having conversations with friends, with people i worked with, with family. Who are terrified of whether or not there might be some adverse consequences for them because of the tuskegee experiments, explicitly referring to times in which black people had been tested on without their permission or denied access to medical intervention, despite awareness that it would be detrimental to their health. That distrust has historical fact. We have come to a point where in terms of the Covid Vaccine and what we were being told by scientists, including the ways in which both the c. D. C. , the world health organization, and others were examining, were actually putting out factual information, beth about the degree to which testing and trials before approval has been had included people who are black, people who are asian and therefore had more basis to be able to state scientifically. Chair jordan the time of the gentlelady has expired. The gentleman from north dakota is recognized. Thank you, id like to yield my time to representative mass see. Mr. Mas see mr. Masie wow. The cogny ty dissonance on the other side of the aisle is, you could cut it with a knife. They are denying that censorship is occur bug suggesting theres more material that needs to be censored. This is a hear on censorship that began with an effort, a formal motion from the other side of the aisle to censor mr. Kennedy. They do not want him to speak. Yet that is the topic of this hearing. They have kept him from speaking. Collusion. Between the government and private organizations. Mr. Kennedy, in your Opening Statement, you introduced us to this world malinformation. Can you tell us more about this made up word, what it means and some of the things youve said or tried to say youve been censored for thats been characterized as malinformation. Mr. Kennedy yes, congressman. If i have leave id like to respond briefly to some of the, what i would call defamations that have been just applied to me by the Ranking Member. Im happy to talk to you about my opinions on these issues, what you have stated and tried to associate me with, guilt by association, simply inaccurate. Virtually every statement you just made about me is inaccurate. I have never advised black americans not to receive vaccines. At one point you say im antivax and thats a bad thing. The other moment you point out that all my children are vaxxed. Im fully compliant with the vaccine schedule myself except for covid. I took flu vaccines for 20 years straight. I have never been antivax. I have never told anybody never told the public to avoid vaccination. The only thing ive asked for and my views are constantly misrepresented, that the truth of what i believe is not allowed to have a conversation about that with the American People which i believe vaccines should be tested with the same rigor as other medicines, medications. You tried to associate me a moment ago with a he replacement theory which is ms. Plaskett i did not say chair jordan the time belongs to the gentleman. Mr. Kennedy i denounced that theory, it is racist. I have never endorsed or had any association with it. Our film on bill boxton, who is the black c. D. C. Official who ultimately exposed the tuskegee experiment, tried for years and years to appeal to c. D. C. To stop, for 40 years, finally he got relief by walking into my uncles office in the building next door, held hearings and ended the experiment. I remember that very well. And to say that that that i created a film and encourage blacks not to get adequate adequate medical care. Ms. Plaskett i didnt chair jordan its the witness time, do not censor the witness. Mr. Massie its my time, ive given it to the witness do, not censor him. Ms. Plaskett i am not censoring him. Mr. Kennedy if the views you and others applied to me were actually true i could see why i shouldnt be able to testify here today. Those are not true. These are defamations and malignancies used to censor me, to prevent people from listening to the actual things that im saying and i think Ranking Member, that we should have a real conversation rather than an exchange of attacks. And answer very quickly to your question, the term malinformation was coined to describe information that facebook and twitter and the other social media sites understood was true but that the white house and other federal agencies wanted censored anyway for political reasons. Because it challenged the official orthodoxies. Ill give you one example. There was a i was included in a group called the disinformation dozen. And facebook and others were asked to censor us, which they did. And by the way, my hank aaron post was taken down. My whole Instagram Account with 900,000 people was taken down. Because of that. They knew. Facebook knew that the disinformation dozen, what they said was disinformation dozen came from this very shady group called the center for preventing digital hate thats funded by dark money that should be looked into. They claim that 65 of the vaccine misinformation on the internet was generated by those 12 people. Facebook itself said that is impossible. That is false information. We know that not to be true. And yet, when the white house asked them to censor this disinformation dozen including me, they did it anyway when they knew it to be untrue. Mr. Massie my time has expired, i yield back. I have a unanimous consent motion. Chair jordan u. C. From the gentleman from new york. I would like to introduce page two of the kran prescriptions of Laura Dehmlow where specifically she says, if someone, shes asked if someone were to leave here today, leave this interview and were to suggest or imply or state that when you said, quote, the laptop was real, unquote, that it meant the f. B. I. Had affirmatively determined in october, 2020, that the laptop belonged to hunter biden, that the con tens belonged to hunter biden, that the contents had not been manipulated in some way, they would be misrepresenting what you said, correct. They would be misrepresenting what i said. Chair jordan without objection, i think thats been introduced but well do it again. We stand in recess for approximately 45 minutes and well be right back at it. Thank you all. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org]