Missouri Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey told Newsmax on Monday that by any legal definition or standard, the Biden administration "obtained the censorship on big tech" to suppress opposing viewpoints during COVID and "Americans suffered."
Bailey joined "Rob Schmitt Tonight" to talk about the oral arguments before the Supreme Court earlier in the day regarding the case known as Murthy vs. Missouri. SCOTUS agreed to hear the case after a U.S. District Court judge ruled last July that the White House violated free speech by "coercing" or "significantly encouraging" social media platforms to take down dissenting posts about its COVID policies and guidance.
At least two media outlets reporting on Monday's arguments said SCOTUS was "skeptical" or "wary" of limiting the federal government's contact with social media platforms.
Bailey disagreed with those characterizations.
"Well, certainly that's what the lamestream media is reporting," Bailey told Schmitt. "And I'm not buying it because I was in that same courtroom, and I'm here to tell you, there is more than one way to show that the government obtained the censorship on big tech social media platforms. Coercion is one element.
"Certainly, the evidence that we've put on … establishes clearly that there was a coercive relationship between the federal government and their task masters at big tech social media platforms," Bailey said. "But you can also prove that the censorship occurred because of significant encouragement on behalf of the federal government. The evidence at a minimum rises to that level."
Justice Samuel Alito referenced that during Monday's arguments, when he said emails showed "constant pestering" by White House staff.
"Or when there's joint operation, that shows an entanglement of the federal government with big tech, and the emails show that, too, where the White House is saying, 'Hey, big tech, we're on the same team, we want the same things here,'" Bailey said.
"So whichever means you use to analyze the problem, the result is the same: The government obtained the censorship on big tech and Americans suffered," he said.
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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