Dem
51
GOP
49
It is a common culture wars formula to put together [bad behavior] + [prominent Democratic politician]. Such things can be hard to counteract, since many culture-warrior voters don't require much (or anything) in the way of proof, and for those so-accused, it can be difficult or impossible to prove a negative.
That said, sometimes these claims are falsifiable because the timeline simply does not work. To take an example, recall that we regularly peruse far-right websites and media outlets, just to see what the talking points are. And one popular far-right talking point these days—a case of bothsidesism meant to excuse Donald Trump's draft-dodging—is to wonder why Barack Obama did not serve in the Vietnam War. We are not making this up. Obama, of course, was 12 years old when major fighting ceased, and was 14 when the last American soldiers were withdrawn. So, he has a pretty good excuse for not serving. Certainly a better excuse than bone spurs in his left ankle. Or was it the right ankle?
We recount this as background to the visit that Rep. Jim Comer (R-KY) paid to Fox & Friends this week. The Twitter Files remain an obsession on the right; the latest report from "journalist" Matt Taibbi focused on communications between the FBI and the social media platform regarding various cases of misinformation being propagated by high-profile users.
Comer, playing the role that the situation would have him play, was appropriately outraged by this revelation. He said:
This is very concerning. No government agency has been the authority to censor free speech. I want to know: is this a direct result of President Biden's orders or is this a result of the deep state government agencies acting on their own as a result of a weak president? Either way, this needs to be stopped and people need to be held accountable.
Presumably, this is the kind of bluster Fox was counting on. That's what brings in the viewers, after all.
There are a couple of problems, though. The first is that there was no censorship. The FBI contacted Twitter management and requested the removals, but did not demand them, and certainly did not get a court order. The second is that nobody involved in this story apparently paid close enough attention to Taibbi's report, since the Twitter Files in question were from 2020. In other words, Joe Biden had nothing to do with it. If there was indeed a corrupt president engaging in censorship, or a weak president allowing the "deep state" to run willy-nilly, then that president is one Donald J. Trump.
When a Republican congresscritter sticks their foot in their mouth like this, and on live national TV no less, there's really only one thing to say: "Thanks, Obama." (Z)