The president and his closest allies have proven themselves committed to ignoring a core group of issues facing the United States, instead focusing their efforts on aims like getting a wall up in between us and Mexico and endlessly diverting from the issue of Russian meddling in our electoral processes.
In that light, on Thursday, the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee held a hearing meant to examine the impact of social media platforms on the national political conversation. This issue has come more to the forefront than it was before in recent weeks thanks to the scandal over the conservative, Trump-allied firm Cambridge Analytica having accessed the data of tens of millions of Facebook profiles.
The Thursday House Judiciary hearing featured as witnesses Trump-allied social media stars Diamond and Silk, whose real names are Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson. It’s been a going line from certain interests on the right for some time now that the pair have been singled out for censorship by Facebook.
However, like other narratives peddled by the president’s allies, that claim is baseless and reeks of absolute ineptitude when it comes to actual political issues posing a threat in the present day.
That did not stop the claim from being pushed yet again at the Thursday House Judiciary Committee hearing.
Speaking under oath before Congress, both Rochelle Richardson and Lynnette Hardaway claimed that Facebook had “blocked” and “censored” their content for six months, but that’s just not true.
It’s as if the president’s allies are just desperate for some kind of “Remember the Alamo!” style rallying cry to give their endless opposition to the nation’s justice system being allowed to proceed unimpeded meaning.
It’s not as though the pair of social media stars lying to Congress — which is a crime — is likely to sour the widespread Republican perception of the pair.
In an appearance on Fox & Friends the morning of their appearance before Congress, the president called Diamond and Silk “warriors,” contrasting them with the Democrat “obstructionists” insisting on vetting his nominees to the best of their ability.
In addition to those comments from the president, he has amplified Diamond and Silk’s message on Twitter in the past.
At the Thursday Congressional hearing at which they appeared, Democrats including New York’s Jerry Nadler offered harsh scrutiny of the facade put up by Republicans to distract from issues inconvenient to the president.
Nadler commented:
‘House Republicans have no time for substantive oversight of the Trump administration, or election security, or privacy policy, or even a discussion about the wisdom of regulating social media platforms — but they have made time for Diamond and Silk. They have prioritized this spectacle over every other conversation we could be having today.’
Indeed, as Nadler indicates, House Republicans have proven keen on advancing the president’s agenda over addressing the issues he mentioned in other contexts as well.
For instance, it’s House Intelligence Committee Chairman and embattled California Republican Devin Nunes who produced a memo earlier this year outlining findings of alleged misconduct at the FBI. That memo is convenient for the president because, like the Thursday’s lie-infected spectacle of a hearing featuring Diamond and Silk, it distracts from a host of issues that cast him in a bad light.
Remarkably, the pair didn’t end their lies with the claim that they had been singled out by Facebook. They also claimed to never have been paid by the Trump campaign when filings with the Federal Election Commission clearly show otherwise.
It never ends with these people.
Featured Image via MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
