A lawmaker used an MRC Free Speech America bombshell to imply that an embattled Biden cabinet member is financially accountable for violations of the First Amendment.
During a mark-up hearing of the Censorship Accountability Act, Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) on Thursday invoked Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s name — the first cabinet member to be impeached by the House of Representatives since 1876 — to explain how the bill would protect Americans whose First Amendment rights have been violated by his actions.
Hageman said the bill seeks to “fundamentally change the mentality” of federal agencies, including DHS, that use their powers to block people from engaging in free speech. “It is a philosophical view of those of us who drafted this that we do not believe that the federal government or agencies from top to bottom should be engaging in censorship,” she continued.
Among the number of examples of DHS’s tyrannical actions cited by Hageman included the agency’s deliberate targeting of Christians, conservatives and Republicans through the Biden administration’s Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention, which MRC first exposed in a bombshell report published May 25.
“Another example was when we had Mr. Mayorkas testify in front of us. I put up on the screen the pyramid that came out of the university that was receiving federal funds likening conservatives Republicans to Nazis,” Hageman said, referring to a previous hearing where she went after Mayorkas over what MRC uncovered.
During a July 26, 2023 hearing, Hageman pressed Mayorkas over MRC’s findings revealing that his federal agency granted $352,109 in fiscal year 2022 to the University of Dayton, which in its grant application used an infamous seminar where self-proclaimed Antifa member Professor Michael Loadenthal presented the “Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization.” In response, Mayorkas said: “I learned about the individual speakers’ comments, with which I profoundly disagree.”
(Related: Rep. Hageman Corners DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Free Speech Using MRC Research)
Despite Mayorkas’s concessions, Hageman warned that the people targeted in the pyramid “have no recourse” to challenge these programs. The Heritage Foundation, Fox News, the Republican National Committee, the Christian Broadcasting Network, Breitbart and PragerU were among the targeted groups.
If passed, the Censorship Accountability Act would give a legal track to Americans to hold executive branch employees accountable for potential First Amendment violations.
“Under current law, the bureaucrats that have been empowered to silence us and restrict our rights are personally and entirely unaccountable,” Hageman said in a July 26 press statement. “By providing for the right to file suit against federal employees who violate the First Amendment, this legislation will ensure that individuals within the executive branch are no longer able to censor with impunity.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
