'Ridiculous': Top Biden staffer grilled for 'astounding' claim about not targeting Elon Musk
Lawmakers grilled a top staffer on President Biden's 2024 campaign for his "astounding" claim that Elon Musk did not face "any adverse government actions" in response to changing the outlet's censorship policies.
Robert Flaherty, deputy campaign manager for Biden's re-election campaign, was pressed by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on his comment about Musk as well as his reported work with Facebook to play referee on rhetoric regarding the COVID-19 pandemic on social media.
In his opening statement, Flaherty said, "Twitter's new owner abandoned all its prior policies related to COVID misinformation over a year and a half ago. That decision was Twitter's to make, and I'm not aware of any adverse actions against Twitter in response to it."
Jordan pressed Flaherty on his statement, calling it "one of the most ridiculous things I've heard."
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"Eight different federal agencies have went after Elon Musk and Twitter since that happened," Jordan said. "And you said in your testimony that Twitter's new owner – I'm not aware of any adverse actions against Twitter in response to it – maybe literally one of the most ridiculous things I've heard. Every agency you can imagine went after this guy because he's advocating for free speech and the First Amendment."
Flaherty responded that he stood by his initial statement about Musk.
Jordan pressed the Biden staffer several times, asking him to provide the definition of misinformation and why certain mandates were pushed by the administration.
"You weren't a medical expert, but you could suggest to Facebook that they needed to change their algorithm so that the American people would not see stuff from the Daily Wire. They'd only see stuff from the New York Times. You can do that. But you can't tell me if they were guessing or lying when they said something that was absolutely not true," Jordan asked during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the "Weaponization of the Federal Government" on Wednesday.
Flaherty responded that he "can't speak to the discussions that were had on that topic. It's been a couple of years."
Flaherty played a prominent role in working with Facebook on behalf of the Biden White House regarding the narrative on social media as it related to COVID-19, according to Facebook files reviewed by Fox in 2023.
The files showed conversations between Flaherty and Facebook officials in which the Biden staffer suggested the tech company "pay attention" to certain types of conversations, specifically those that expressed hesitancy about the COVID-19 vaccine and its potential side effects.
"Since it’s a global pandemic, can we give agencies access to targeting parameters that they normally wouldn’t be able to?" the then-White House official said in a conversation.
Flaherty worked as the "Biden for President" digital director from 2019 through November 2020, transitioning into his White House role as assistant to the president and director of digital strategy until joining the president's re-election campaign again in 2023.
The Biden administration's speculated involvement with social media censorship was recently brought to the Supreme Court in Murthy v. Missouri, a case charging the Biden administration with colluding with Big Tech companies to counter certain information. A decision on the case is expected in the summer.
Fox News' Hillary Vaughn contributed to this report.