Congressman Cohen Opposes Sham Effort to Hold Biden Ghostwriter in Contempt of Congress
Introduces an amendment on Republicans’ use of “cheap fake” political adds targeting the President
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, called the Republican effort to hold President Biden’s ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer in contempt of Congress “a travesty of a mockery of a sham” and introduced an amendment calling attention to why they are seeking information from him: to create “cheap fake” political ads disparaging the President.
In introducing his amendment, he said in part:
“I’m amazed at what we’ve been talking about today…There are serious concerns about the risk that audio files may be manipulated for political purposes. Notably, in recent months Republicans have repeatedly circulated deceptively manipulated “cheap fake” videos targeting President Biden.
“For example, after President Biden appeared at a D-Day commemoration ceremony in France, social media users circulated a deceptively edited video that appeared to show Biden attempting to sit in a chair that did not exist. However, the full video of the event shows there is a chair behind Biden, which he promptly sits in.
“On June 13th, the Republican National Committee’s RNC Research account tweeted a deceptively edited video that appeared to show Biden wandering off following a paratrooper demonstration during the annual Group of Seven (G7) summit in Italy. However, the full, unedited video shows Biden walking toward a group of paratroopers who had just landed, giving them two thumbs-up.
“Judiciary Republicans have also circulated their own misleading clips on social media in recent weeks. On June 18th, the official House Judiciary GOP X account falsely claimed that Biden fell asleep during a performance by Andrea Boccelli at the G7 Summit. The full video shows that the president just briefly closed his eyes while listening to Boccelli sing.
“These and other examples create serious reason to be concerned about how Republicans and others might use the high personal information they are seeking today.”
The amendment failed on a voice vote.
See Congressman Cohen’s entire remarks here.
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