‘Biden Was Not in Elected Office’: Tarlov Flips the Script on Conservatives by Wrecking Claim He Chilled Free Speech
Jessica Tarlov dismantled key conservative talking points regarding Twitter’s handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story from 2020, and asked what it was that then-President Donald Trump wanted removed from Twitter.
On Friday, Twitter CEO Elon Musk teased and presumably facilitated the release of internal emails via journalist Matt Taibbi, who agreed to tweet the materials in accordance with conditions that he did not specify.
The disclosures proved to be mundane internal discussions among Twitter employees from 2020 about how to handle allegations about Hunter Biden’s now-verified laptop contents being spread on social media. Twitter eventually decided to limit access to the story on the platform because it was not confirmed at the time.
The so-called “Twitter Files” as reported by Taibbi revealed nothing substantially new, but conservatives have nonetheless seized upon them as evidence of a left-wing conspiracy to suppress free speech. Musk himself even suggested that Joe Biden violated the First Amendment’s free speech protections when his campaign requested that pornographic images of his son be taken down.
However, as Tarlov pointed out on Monday’s episode of The Five, Biden was a private citizen at the time and thus, could not violate the First Amendment. Moreover, she noted, Taibbi’s reporting stated that Trump also sought the removal of certain content from Twitter. The difference, she observed, was that Trump was the president at the time.
“I cannot stand watching conservatives – like Kevin McCarthy was it doing this weekend, soon-to-be speaker of the House – talking about how this is about the First Amendment,” Tarlov said. “Joe Biden was not in elected office. He was a candidate. And what his team, according to the Matt Taibbi files… what they wanted taken down – the links that he provided – were pictures provided were pictures of his son’s penis.”
Tarlov called the conservative reaction to the Biden team’s concerns “pathetic.” She further noted Taibbi reported that then-President Trump’s team had also reached out to Twitter seeking the removal of content unfavorable to Trump, who of course was president of the United States at the time.
“Taibbi also admitted that the Trump campaign asked for campaign moderation, and then he left those links out,” Tarlov continued. “Why did not tell us what the actual government was asking to have taken down when you’re telling us what Joe Biden’s team asked to be taken down? And by the way, that’s a violation of the terms of service. That’s not even a favor. That’s someone pinging someone at Twitter and saying ‘Hey, this is revenge porn.'”
Watch above via Fox News.
