WATCH: Jim Jordan Torches Biden's FTC Chair For 'Obsession' With Elon Musk's Twitter - 'Why Are You Harassing Twitter?'

On Thursday, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) lit up Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan at the House Judiciary Oversight hearing, calling out the agency for having an “obsession” with Elon Musk since his takeover of popular social media platform Twitter. 

The Judiciary Committee chair held nothing back, opening by asking Khan “Why are you harassing Twitter?” 

As is par for the course at these hearings, whenever answering, the person on the hot seat does all they can to not answer the question while appearing like they are. Khan starts to ‘answer’ the question by talking about the work that the FTC has done with Twitter over the past ten years but Jordan immediately shuts that down saying he’s “talking about now.”

The FTC Chair claimed that “Twitter has a history of lax security and privacy policies” which allowed users to co-opt other accounts they were not meant to. Of course, while this may seem like a valid concern, this again has nothing to do with what Rep. Jordan is asking about. The question from Jordan isn’t just about the relationship with Twitter but how it’s changed and now surrounds Elon Musk, something that is wildly inappropriate for a government agency to be doing.

"Here’s what you wrote in December," Jordan said, interrupting Khan again after she avoided giving the actual answer. "’Identify all journalists and other members of the media to whom Twitter has granted access since Musk bought the company.’ You want to know the name of every journalist a private company has talked to? You think that’s consistent with the First Amendment?" 

The FTC chair played a bit of a sympathy card noting how she used to be a journalist herself and therefore understands how government action against them can be “unjustifiably chilling.” Of course, that doesn’t seem to be stopping her and her agency from doing just that. 

"That’s bad enough, and I think a threat to the First Amendment Freedom of the press," Jordan said. "But in the context of giving us information about how government had suppressed speech on these platforms, that’s the context you’re asking for, I think that’s particularly troubling, don’t you?" 

Jordan then spends some time discussing how an investigator, David Roque, testified that he was being pushed to look for certain information during his time looking into Twitter, saying he felt “as if the FTC was trying to influence the outcome of the engagement before it had started.” Roque has since been deposed by FTC lawyers.

"Is your attack on Twitter — harassment on Twitter — is that based on the fact that all kinds of Democrats have asked you to do this and, frankly, some things that you’ve written about dealing with ‘disinformation.' Does that have anything to do with it?" Jordan asked, in a killing blow to the back-and-forth. 

Khan claimed they only make “independent determinations” that do not have influence from outside politics but that is what any and every department and agency say regardless of how influenced they are by outside voices. 

It’s always fascinating to watch these obviously politicized departments and agencies have to go before Congress and claim neutrality. The Biden administration has clearly put as much influence on every facet of government as possible and now it’s simply a game of trying to pretend they did not. 

So long as the departments can look neutral and look like they’re following the law of the land, they can get away with whatever corrupt and unjust actions they want. Twitter is the new target as it’s been making a strong push towards free speech as it becomes a target of the Biden administration. 

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