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