Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested that Republicans be allowed to kill more Americans with vaccine misinformation and doing otherwise is trampling on free speech.
Video:
Ted Cruz claims that Biden is trampling "free speech" by trying to get Facebook to remove vaccine misinformation that is killing people. pic.twitter.com/TevF7iehYj
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) July 18, 2021
Cruz said on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures:
Well, the Supreme Court has long recognized a line of cases that when government uses a private company as a tool, as an arm to implement a government policy, and in this instance when government explicitly asks a private monopoly to censor the followingspeechthat we disagree with, that that private company can be treated as a state actor and I’ve got to say, watching Jen Psaki this week, it is amazing.
I kind of wonder if Jen Psaki is on the payroll of Donald Trump because her press conference strengthened president trump’s lawsuit against big tech. It makes clear that everything we thought about the Biden administration, about their willingness to trample onfreespeech, to trample on the constitution, to use government power to silence you, everything we feared they might do, they are doing and worse and I think president Trump’s lawsuit got much, much stronger this week.
Ted Cruz Argued That Stopping Republicans From Killing Americans With Vaccine Misinformation Violates Free Speech
Cruz’s claim that Facebook is a government actor is a fantasy that will be crushed in court as soon as it is raised. The Biden administration has said constantly that Facebook is a private company.
The problem is that Facebook is allowing misinformation on its platform that is killing people.
The posters of vaccine misinformation do not have a First Amendment right, so to accuse Biden of violating free speech rights is an absurd stretch.
Republicans are willing to kill Americans with their lies because they believe that they will politically benefit by keeping the pandemic strong and the economy weak.
By defending vaccine misinformation, Ted Cruz has the blood on his hands of every American who believes these lies, contracts COVID, and dies.
Mr. Easley is the managing editor, who is White House Press Pool, and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association