House Rep. Clay Higgins warns Twitter of repercussions
House Rep. Clay Higgins warned former Twitter executives on Wednesday of possible arrest for interfering with 2020 presidential election.
Twitter owner Elon Musk blasted former executives of the social media giant online after they testified in front of Congress on Wednesday, comparing them to the East German secret police.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee interviewed James Baker, Vijaya Gadde, Yoel Roth and Anika Collier Navaroli — all former executives at Twitter — in a scathing series of exchanges that have gone viral online.
"The Woke Stasi felt the heat today," Musk tweeted along with a fire emoji.
He added a link to "The Lives of Others," a movie about East German residents living under the close watch of the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police force.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk blasted former executives of the social media giant online after they testified in front of Congress on Wednesday. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto, CARINA JOHANSEN/NTB/AFP via Getty Images (Photo illustration))
Musk’s post went viral almost immediately, picking up over 81,000 likes and more than 6 million views in a matter of hours.
The billionaire's fiery post followed closely after a widely publicized hearing in the House on Twitter’s censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story and its alleged collusion with the government to silence conservatives on the platform, as was exposed by the Twitter Files.
The hearing itself was highly contentious, with one Republican member telling the former Twitter executives that they were at risk of being arrested.
"You, ladies and gentlemen, interfered with the United States of America 2020 presidential election, knowingly and willingly," Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La. said.
"That’s the bad news, it’s gonna get worse because this is the investigation part. Later comes the arrest part. Your attorneys are familiar with that."
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Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene called out Roth, former Head of Trust and Safety at Twitter, for allowing "child porn all over Twitter."
Instead of working to ban child pornography from the platform, Greene said, Roth focused on banning her from Twitter.
Instead of working to ban child pornography from the platform, Greene said, Roth focused on banning Greene from Twitter. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Rep. Byron Donalds R-Fla. sparred with Roth over the Hunter Biden laptop story, showing him links related to the laptop of President Biden's son that were reportedly suppressed on the platform.
Roth responded that the links provided by Donalds depicted "non-consensual nude photos of Hunter Biden."
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Many Democrats attempted to downplay the hearing, calling it a biased waste of time.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed on Twitter that it was a flop. "Fascinating how after years of ‘debate me!!!’ cries, the moment Republicans won control of committee debates and hearings, they flopped spectacularly."
"They controlled the topic, time, witnesses, named their ‘star’ members, and STILL failed. What’s going to be their excuse now?" Ocasio-Cortez asked.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough laughed off the hearing Thursday morning as "a witch hunt" and claimed that the Twitter Files were "the most biased thing" he’s ever seen.
Jen Psaki, now an MSNBC contributor, agreed with Scarborough.
"[The hearing] was like a word salad of right-wing craziness."
Fox News’ Greg Wehner contributed to this report.