Elon Shuts Down Ted Lieu on the Twitter Files, as Liberals Laughably Try to Deflect

The reaction of Democrats and those in liberal media to the release of the Twitter Files has been either to try to ignore it or do their best to spin it as old or inconsequential news. But you know how much they’re failing by how much they protest — methinks they doth protest too much.

But yes, Democrats, it’s a very big deal that Twitter was censoring people and shadowbanning conservatives, that the government and the Biden campaign were involved, and that pro-Biden tweets received special treatment while tweets from President Donald Trump had engagement reined in.

The files showed that high-level Twitter staffers like the head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth were regularly in contact with “federal enforcement and intelligence agencies about moderation of election-related content,” “that Roth not only met weekly with the FBI and DHS, but with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).”

Taibbi said that Roth and Twitter Head of Legal, Policy, and Trust Vijaya Gadde “were a high-speed Supreme Court of moderation, issuing content rulings on the fly, often in minutes and based on guesses, gut calls, even Google searches, even in cases involving the President.” Twitter staffers spoke about partnering with the FBI and the DHS as well as talking about whether it was safe to let the public know about such partnerships to deal with misinformation.

What did we hear in response to this from the liberals and their fellow travelers?

The spin was so extreme, it was funny.

Mother Jones DC bureau chief David Corn claimed Musk “seems to be on the side of election deniers,” without any evidence to support this claim.

Laughably, some tried to argue that Twitter was biased in favor of right-wing accounts, despite what Musk revealed and what our own eyes have seen. Paris Marx, a tech journalist said, “Probably a good time to remind everyone that regardless of what Elon Musk, his reactionary advisors, and fake journalists want you to believe, Twitter admitted its algorithms were biased in favor of right-wing accounts just last year.”

Translation: ignore the evidence Musk and his cohort have presented, not to mention the evidence of our own eyes over the past couple of years, because the former Twitter people who were lying and suppressing things made this claim.

Leftist journalist Keith Olberman channeled his inner fascist and said it was time for the Senate to investigate Elon Musk for the temerity of being transparent about the actions of his company.

“It’s time for Senate hearings into what scheme @elonmusk is up to, what terrorist or foreign influence is involved,” he tweeted, “and what can be done to remove this public medium from his malign control.”

So censorship of political opponents is cool, but free speech is “terrorism” and “foreign influence.” But Democrats already are trying to target Twitter as Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) telegraphed, claiming that they needed to take action against “hate speech.” Elon shut him down with a little reality.

But perhaps one of the lamest attempts to deflect from the truth came from Rep. Ted Lieu (R-CA), who claimed that this was just “gaslighting” by Elon Musk.

.@elonmusk is not stupid, but this faux “Twitter files” stuff is stupid.

In 2020, the whole world knew what Trump was tweeting. Media outlets breathlessly covered his tweets. Millions and millions of people followed him.

Claiming Trump was silenced in 2020 is pure gaslighting. https://t.co/tx1vle9l6b

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) December 10, 2022

Lieu claimed Musk was “not stupid, but this faux ‘Twitter files’ stuff is stupid.” He claimed that in 2020, everyone know what Trump was tweeting.

“Media outlets breathlessly covered his tweets. Millions and millions of people followed him. Claiming Trump was silenced in 2020 is pure gaslighting.”

Lieu has trouble with basic concepts — no one said he was “silenced” (completely shut off). But that doesn’t mean they didn’t also limit his reach, take down conservative support or suppress stories like the Hunter Biden laptop. All this we know was going on. Who’s gaslighting who, here, Ted?

Lieu got shut down by Elon Musk in response, speaking exactly to that point.