Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), who previously served as Missouri’s attorney general, decried the “vast” tech-government censorship collusion aimed at “censoring Americans.”
In a Monday interview on The Charlie Kirk Show, Schmitt talked about evidence both from a lawsuit he filed while he was Missouri’s top law enforcement official and other sources on the effort to silence Americans’ free speech. “The government isn't in charge and shouldn't be responsible for what people can see, or hear, or say,” Schmitt insisted. “And that's what they want to do, to control the narrative.” He particularly warned that speech will be under attack during the 2024 election cycle, as Big Tech and government censorship efforts constitute election interference.
Schmitt cited two particularly egregious censorship examples during the interview. “First was the Hunter Biden laptop story. That was pre-bunked,” he said, noting that FBI agent Elvis Chan primed companies to believe — wrongly — the scandal was a Russian hack and leak operation. “And then on COVID, whether it was the vaccine or mask mandates or the lab leak theory, government was working hand-in-hand with Big Tech to censor Americans.”
Besides Missouri v. Biden, the lawsuit he originally filed that is now heading to the Supreme Court, and the Twitter Files, Schmitt cited a Tucker Carlson interview of former State Department official Mike Benz. “It’s scary stuff,” Schmitt said, noting that multiple agencies have been involved in trying to silence any views of which the federal government does not approve.
Some of it was publicly announced, like the now-defunct Disinformation Governance Board. Other government efforts to “suppress dissent” were more secretive, Schmitt implied, echoing Benz’s candid interview with Carlson. Specifically, Benz exposed DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the State Department and the Pentagon for funding university initiatives to flag posts expressing opinions contrary to government narratives on vaccines, mask efficacy, certain public health officials and the legitimacy of mail-in-ballots. All of it was unacceptable. Schmitt cited the First Amendment as a “really important concept.”
Addressing Missouri v. Biden, Schmitt explained, “What we sought [sic] out to prove, which we have, is that two more corrupt institutions - Big Government and Big Tech - were in cahoots to censor millions of Americans.”
While Democrats scaremonger about GOP presidential front runner Donald Trump, the real threat to this republic and its rights come from the current administration, according to Schmitt. “The real threat to democracy is trying to put your opponents in prison for the rest of their life, censoring Americans,” he stated.
MRC Free Speech America Intern Christian Baldwin contributed to this report.
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