In more of a defense for freedom of speech than support for October surprises during a presidential campaign, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story was "a mistake."
Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley and is selling a book on Big Tech, made the remarks to "American Optimist," notably taking the position that neither government nor Big Tech should be "the arbiter of truth" — as political battles have been waged similarly on the science of COVID-19 and the suppression of ideas.
"In the book, I write about how I thought it was a mistake for Twitter to take down some of the stuff about Hunter Biden, or Facebook to do that," Khanna told the video podcast.
The support for the Biden reporting from the New York Post ends at freedom of speech, though, as Khanna denounced it otherwise as "hogwash," but he said taking it down was more damaging than the findings.
He considered the report on Hunter Biden's ties to China, Russia, and Ukraine, as his father was running for president, "unfairly attacked" his fellow Democrat's campaign.
"And I think that story was total hogwash," he continued. "I think Joe Biden was unfairly attacked because of his son, but that doesn't mean that it didn't belong in the public sphere."
COVID-19 scientists — including the doctor who was the architect of the mRNA technology that brought the world the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines — have been blocked on Twitter for their scientific statements amid the pandemic. President Joe Biden this week even made a specific call on Big Tech to censor alleged "misinformation."
Khanna's podcast interview made a notable statement that neither government nor Big Tech should be taking steps to stop ideas or speech — unless it incites violence.
"I am not for having either the government, or, you know, tech companies ultimately being the arbiter of truth," Khanna said. "I'm for making sure that we don't have speech that incites violence, but I'm very wary of censorship."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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