Congressman Cohen Questions Republican Efforts to Suppress Free Speech

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, today questioned the entire premise of a hearing on the so-called Censorship-Industrial Complex. In his remarks, he expressed concern about the rule of law and the role of Elon Musk, owner of the former social media platform Twitter (now X), and the place of truth in our civic discourse.

In the course of questioning witnesses, Congressman said in part:

“What’s happening right now is we have a Constitutional crisis…What’s at stake is our core values – the rule of law. This committee is doing nothing about it. We should be concerned about the rule of law, concerned about the Constitution, concerned about the truth, and we’re not doing that and we have a great problem.

“The American people thought they were going to elect a government to get involved with inflation, reduce the price of eggs, make their daily lives better, end the war in Ukraine on Day One. None of that has happened…

“Twitter has been ruined. It was a marketplace for ideas. It no longer is. It’s a mouthpiece for the extreme right and for Musk…

“I’m just concerned about the truth. I’m concerned about Musk, I’m concerned about DOGE. I’m concerned about this employee who they wanted to bring back, and I think they did, who said, ‘just for the records, I was racist before it was cool.’”

See Congressman Cohen entire speech here.

Witnesses at today’s hearing were:

• Matt Taibbi, Twitter Files journalist; author; Founder, Racket News
• Michael Shellenberger, Twitter Files journalist; CBR Chair of Politics, Censorship, and Free Speech, University of Austin; Founder, Public News
• Rupa Subramanya, Canada-based journalist, The Free Press
• Craig Aaron, Co-CEO, The Free Press

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