Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said Sept. 30 Twitter should suspend President Donald Trump’s Twitter account for abusing his power by using it to criticize the so-called whistleblower whose complaint triggered an impeachment inquiry in Congress.
San Francisco-based Twitter, which runs the popular micro-blogging website of the same name, has been criticized, largely by conservatives, for suppressing their messages and for “shadowbanning,” or hiding, tweets that company censors disfavor.
“The president’s tweets and his behaviors about this are just further evidence of the fact that he uses his power in a way that is designed to beat people down instead of lift people up,” the junior senator from California told CNN host Anderson Cooper.
Harris (pictured above) implied Trump has forfeited the right to defend himself against allegations made against him.
“Frankly, when you look at what he’s been tweeting today directed at the whistleblower, directed at so many people, you know, I, frankly, think that based on this and all we’ve seen him do before, including attacking members of Congress, that he, frankly, should be – his Twitter account should be suspended. I think there is plenty of new evidence to suggest that he is irresponsible with his words in a way that could result in harm to other people. And so the privilege of using those words in that way should probably be taken from him.”
The day of Harris’ statement Trump did tweet about the whistleblower, whose identity has still not been revealed. He wrote: “The Fake Whistleblower complaint is not holding up. It is mostly about the call to the Ukrainian President which, in the name of transparency, I immediately released to Congress & the public. The Whistleblower knew almost nothing, its 2ND HAND description of the call is a fraud.”
And he tweeted: “Rep. Adam Schiff illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to Congress and the American people. It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason?”
California Democrat Schiff, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, read out at a hearing Sept. 26 what he later admitted was an unflattering “parody” of Trump’s words during the call.
Harris’ complaints come after former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign demanded Sept. 29 that major television networks stop booking Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, accusing him of promoting “false, debunked conspiracy theories.”
“By giving him your air time, you are allowing him to introduce increasingly unhinged, unfounded and desperate lies into the national conversation,” Biden senior adviser Anita Dunn wrote in a letter obtained by Politico.
Dunn is the former Obama White House communications director who hailed the late Chinese dictator Mao Zedong as “one of the two people that I turn to most,” in a videotaped speech revealed by then-Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck in 2009.
Conservative author Raheem Kassam tweeted his disapproval Oct. 1.
“Biden wants Giuliani banned from TV and Kamala wants Trump off Twitter. These aren’t just heavy handing (losing) campaign tactics. This is a preview of what their presidencies would [look] like. On the 70th anniversary of Chinese communism no less.”
The totalitarian People’s Republic of China was proclaimed on Oct. 1, 1949, after years of civil war.
This article by Matthew Vadum appeared Oct. 1, 2019, in The Epoch Times.