Rep. Jim Jordan is having a rough go at conjuring up a scandal to stick on Democrats in his role leading the GOP-devised House subcommittee on the “weaponization of government.”
My MSNBC colleague Hayes Brown published an excellent write-up on some of the top-line issues plaguing Jordan’s committee — in particular, the Ohio Republican’s tendency to overpromise what the panel could unearth. And another colleague, Steve Benen, wrote a nice follow-up to that, on Thursday’s subcommittee hearing, which centered largely on baseless claims that the federal government has pressured Twitter to silence conservative voices.
If you’re experiencing a bit of déjà vu, thinking Jordan and House Republicans already held such a hearing, don’t fret: The House Oversight Committee did, in fact, meet in February to discuss the right-wing “Twitter Files” conspiracy theory promoted by Elon Musk.
Jordan was essentially trying to rehash the same topic. And he picked a particularly awful time to do so.
Multiple reports from this week don’t just undercut Jordan’s claims that Republicans are unfairly targeted on social media — they illustrate examples of what should warrant government scrutiny.
For example, The Associated Press and Gizmodo both reported on a study by Israeli cybersecurity firm Cyabra, which found a bot army of fake Twitter accounts that are expressing support for Donald Trump and targeting people seen as his biggest challenges to gaining the Republican presidential nomination next year. Specifically, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley are mentioned as targets.
According to AP:
Besides posting adoring words about the former president, the fake accounts ridiculed Trump’s critics from both parties and attacked Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador who is challenging her onetime boss for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. When it came to Ron DeSantis, the bots…
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