Sen. John Thune (R-SD) ultimately was elected to lead Republicans as they took a majority in the Senate following the 2024 election red wave. But what transpired before today’s leadership vote surrounding free speech and censorship contextualizes the direction Republicans have chosen to take on the important constitutional issue.
Recently, legacy outlets Politico and The Washington Post reported on, and appeared to sympathize with, an amendment co-sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) that would continue the work of an anti-free speech State Department program, the Global Engagement Center (GEC). In response, the Media Research Center relentlessly sought answers from the potential Senate majority leader candidates. The Media Research Center reached out to Cornyn, Thune and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL).
The GEC, for its part, was shown to have aggressively worked to censor free speech on social media platforms, including targeting users of platforms as being a part of foreign influence campaigns. For example, Twitter Files journalist Matt Taibbi has reported that the GEC has smeared Twitter users by accusing them of acting on behalf of the People’s Republic of China. The GEC gave Twitter a list of “5500 names” that included CNN employees and “multiple Western government accounts.” The GEC has also been caught working with, and even giving $100,000 to, the George Soros-funded anti-free speech Global Disinformation Index (GDI). In Feb. 2023, Washington Examiner Investigative Reporter Gabe Kaminsky exposed the GDI for seeking to “defund conservative media” by cutting them off from their advertising funding.
The Media Research Center called Cornyn’s D.C. and district offices 12 times, in addition to sending two emails and a text message to Cornyn Press Secretary Tatum Wallace about the amendment. At no point did any Cornyn staffer address the amendment or even agree to speak on the phone. A staffer from Sen. Thune’s office informed the Media Research Center that Sen. Thune did not have a comment on the amendment. The Media Research Center also passed on concerns about the amendment to a staffer at one of Sen. Scott’s regional offices.
Ahead of the vote, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) asked for questions on his “BasedMikeLee” X account for a Nov. 12 candidate forum with Cornyn, Thune and Scott. The MRC reached out to Sen. Lee using its X accounts to provide questions about the future of the Global Engagement Center and government-funded censorship to ask at the forum.
Using the @theMRC account, the MRC asked specifically about Cornyn’s amendment and whether the senators seeking the leadership position would support the GEC’s anti-free speech work.
Sen. John Cornyn is co-sponsoring an amendment to continue the work of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center.
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) November 12, 2024
Where do each of you stand on funding entities like the anti-free speech Global Engagement Center, which has been shown to have pushed to censor the American…
Separately, using the @FreeSpeechAmer account the MRC asked more broadly how each of the senators would help ensure the U.S. government is not used to undermine the constitutionally-protected free speech rights of its citizens.
What will each of you do to help ensure that the American people are safeguarded against foreign adversaries while not allowing the U.S. government to be weaponized against U.S. citizens and their constitutionally-protected free speech rights under the guise of protecting them…
— Free Speech America (@FreeSpeechAmer) November 12, 2024
Though the forum was not aired to the public, Lee said during the forum he hosted that “[n]early every Senate Republican s in attendance” and that the senators running for leadership were having a “productive discussion addressing a really wide range of policy and procedural questions.”
Following the forum, Lee announced that while he “liked all three leadership candidates,” he considered Rick Scott to be the “most aggressively reformed-minded candidate,” and that Scott received his endorsement for the position.
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