Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) downplayed social media censorship during Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate against Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) by suggesting that conservatives should have had their speech censored, claiming their criticism of the government over coronavirus-related issues is equivalent to yelling “fire” in “a crowded theater.”
“This idea that there’s censorship to stop people from doing — threatening to kill someone, threatening to do something — that’s not censorship. Censorship is book banning,” Walz said during Tuesday’s vice presidential debate.
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Walz then asked Vance if he thinks former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.
“Tim, I’m focused on the future. Did Kamala Harris censor Americans from speaking their minds in the wake of the 2020 COVID situation?” Vance replied.
Walz then accused Vance of delivering a “damning non-answer,” to which Trump’s running mate responded, “It’s a damning non-answer for you to not talk about censorship.”
“Obviously Donald Trump and I think that there were problems in 2020. We’ve talked about it, I’m happy to talk about it further, but you guys attack us for not believing in democracy, the most sacred right under the United States democracy is the First Amendment,” Vance elaborated.
“You yourself have said there’s no First Amendment right to misinformation,” Vance told Walz. “Kamala Harris wants to use the power of government and big tech to silence people from speaking their minds. That is a threat to democracy that will long out this present political moment.”
Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate then countered Vance’s argument by delivering a trite statement that many on the left use as an excuse to censor speech, replying, “You can’t yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.”
“Tim, ‘fire’ in a crowded theater? You guys wanted to kick people off of Facebook for saying that toddlers shouldn’t wear masks,” Vance responded. “That’s not ‘fire’ in a crowded theater, that is criticizing the policies of the government, which is the right of every American.”
Walz replied, stating, “Well, I don’t run Facebook.”
The government, however, does appear to exercise substantial control over Facebook, as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in August that the Biden-Harris administration pressured his company to censor certain COVID-related content in 2021, including “human and satire.”
Columnist Sohrab Ahmari took to X to react to Walz’s earlier comment pivoting to “book banning,” pointing out that the bigger issue at hand is the government’s involvement in speech censorship to the point where it was also meddling in the 2020 election.
“No, Gov. Walz, sorry, censorship is not ‘book-banning’ — a minor to nonexistent issue. Censorship is Twitter and Facebook censoring the New York Post — America’s oldest daily, founded by Alexander Hamilton — for its coverage of lab leak and the Hunter laptop,” Ahmari said.
As Breitbart News reported, Zuckerberg has also admitted that Facebook killed the bombshell Hunter Biden “Laptop from Hell” story ahead of the 2020 election after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) “warned” of a “potential Russian disinformation operation.”
And of course, the FBI’s claim of “Russian disinformation” was later found to be false.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
