James Comer on Twitter's censorship of Hunter Biden story: 'Federal government was involved'
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., joined 'Fox & Friends First' to discuss how Elon Musk exposing Twitter's censorship is 'concerning,' expanding Chinese influence, and the Republicans' effort to probe Biden's failed oil deal with Saudi Arabia.
A former FBI employee is likely to take the hot seat after it was revealed over the weekend that FBI officials had weekly meetings with Twitter prior to the 2020 election in order to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., joined "Fox & Friends First" Monday to discuss why James Baker, a former FBI general counsel previously involved in the Russia collusion investigation, will now likely face questioning before Congress after becoming Twitter's deputy counsel.
"Baker and [former Twitter executive] Vijaya Gadde are probably the two most high-profile Twitter employees that we want to hear from," Comer told co-hosts Ashley Strohmier and Griff Jenkins. "My advice to them is, prior to coming before the Oversight Committee in January or February, as quick as we can get them in front of the oversight committee, is they need to look very hard to try to find evidence as to why they suppressed this story."
ELON MUSK REVEALS WHAT LED TO TWITTER SUPPRESSING HUNTER BIDEN STORY IN 2020
FBI officials reportedly met with Twitter employees weekly leading up to the 2020 election, briefing them on "hack-and-leak operations" pertaining to Hunter Biden.
These warnings came ahead of Twitter censoring the New York Post's bombshell October 2020 report on Hunter Biden's business dealings found on his laptop, citing its "hacked materials" policy. At the time, the FBI had been in possession of his laptop for nearly a year.
"This was a cover-up at the highest levels of the government to protect Joe Biden," Comer said. "Let's remember what they're protecting here. They're protecting the laptop and the contents of the laptop, which show not only did Joe Biden know full well what his son and his brothers were doing with respect to influence peddling with our adversaries, it shows that Joe Biden was very involved with this effort and this is something that should concern every American."
Comer, who is set to chair the House Oversight Committee when the GOP takes control next month, insisted there is more information to come on Big Tech's censorship of conservative voices after Twitter CEO Elon Musk released the bombshell Twitter files over the weekend.
"Elon Musk is going to slowly produce more information and more evidence of involvement. Remember, what he produced this weekend was pre-Biden. This was Biden's campaign and the FBI. What I predict is you're going to see in the weeks and months ahead are things that the Biden administration did to suppress conservative free speech and to encourage Twitter to ban certain people who were hostile to the Biden administration in their policies," he added.
Former assistant FBI director Chris Swecker echoed Comer's sentiment on "Fox & Friends First." He also addressed Twitter's involvement in censoring the high-profile story ahead of the election, and his concern surrounding Baker's potential conflict of interest.
Swecker said that although he did not know him personally, he is portraying himself to be a component of the "suppression machine."
"There's a lifetime ban on dealing with companies that… the FBI has jurisdiction over… and has business with," Swecker said. "And then there's a one-year ban on any type of contact with the FBI. So… I don't know I don't know him. I don't know his politics. But I know that it reflects, in my opinion and that of others… on the FBI that he's part of that suppression machine."
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Vijaya Gadde, Chief Legal Officer at Twitter. REUTERS/ Mike Blake (REUTERS/ Mike Blake)
Despite the bombshell findings released over the weekend, Swecker said he is unfortunately not surprised with the information released.
"They're salting the top FBI ranks with ideologues who come really from the Justice Department, which… all the top appointments are political appointments in the Justice Department under Merrick Garland," Swecker said.
"I'm afraid that they have become the most political Justice Department I've seen in 40 years."
Fox News' Landon Mion contributed to this report.