‘In-Kind Contributions’? Rep. Donalds GRILLS Jim Baker Over NY Post Censorship Scandal

February 8th, 2023 5:02 PM

No one expected former Twitter special counsel and ex-FBI agent Jim baker to have all the answers, but when Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) questioned him on Twitter and “in-kind contributions,” it appeared Baker had none of the answers.

The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability held its first Twitter Files hearing Wednesday morning. The hearing featured testimony from former Twitter Head of Legal, Policy, and Trust Vijaya Gadde, Baker and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth. Each apparently worked with the FBI to censor the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story, according to The Twitter Files

Rep. Donalds (R-FL) asked former Baker if Twitter calculated its contribution to the Biden campaign at the Wednesday House Oversight Committee hearing on The Twitter Files.

“Have you guys been able to quantify the amount of in-kind contributions associated with taking down the New York Post story,” Donalds asked, noting that the story was down for over two weeks (17 days). “Do you have any understanding of how much that story was limited by Twitter and also by other social media companies, what the impact of an in-kind contribution that would be to the Joe Biden presidential election in 2020?” 

Baker continually answered that he “didn’t know” the answer to the question, but Donalds continued to press Baker. “Do you think it’s big? Do you think it’s more than the maximum contribution to a campaign? Would you call it $25,000? $100,000? A million [dollars]?” he asked.

The congressman added: “Do you think Twitter would be in violation of federal election laws with the size of an in-kind contribution to take down a story — which is true, by the way — because you guys thought you knew something with limited information? 

Baker continually answered, “I don’t know” the answer to the question, and that he wouldn’t want to “speculate.”

The ex-FBI agent turned internal Twitter censorship cheerleader may not want to speculate, but “Twitter did everything they could to deliver the 2020 election to Joe Biden,” as MRC President Brent Bozell put it.

A 2020 MRC poll found that 45 percent of President Joe Biden’s voters weren’t fully aware of the New York Post story precisely because the media and Big Tech whitewashed it. Had Americans been fully aware of the scandal, 9.4 percent of Biden voters would have abandoned him, flipping all six of the swing states he won to former President Donald Trump, giving Trump a victorious 311 electoral votes.

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