As we told you earlier today, Democrat Rep. Ted Lieu, speaking on CNN, admitted that he’d “love” to regulate free speech, but the First Amendment prevents politicians like him from doing so:
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA): "I would love to be able to regulate the content of speech. The First Amendment prevents me from doing so…" pic.twitter.com/2LYevmIqrT
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December 12, 2018
Naturally, Lieu sparked a lot of facepalms with what he accidentally admitted out loud:
In this statement, @tedlieu makes himself a poster child for the tyranny that Hamilton and Madison feared. https://t.co/EEk6qIa77b
— Elliott Hamilton (@ElliottRHams) December 12, 2018
However, responding to the criticism, the congressman from California tweeted some attempted defenses of his comments. Here are three:
I would love to regulate your speech, but thank goodness the First Amendment prevents me, @POTUS, and Republicans from doing so.
Get it? I'm defending the First Amendment.
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) December 12, 2018
The CNN question is in response to my defense of Google's right to free speech at the Judiciary hearing. I was pointing out that government, and specifically Republicans alleging Google was biased, cannot regulate the content of speech. Get it? I'm defending the 1st Amendment.
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) December 12, 2018
I took one oath before becoming a Member of Congress and that was to the United States Constitution. I intend to follow that oath.
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) December 12, 2018
Notice how Lieu artfully dragged Trump and Republicans into the conversation about what HE said he’d like to regulate. That spin, however, is proving to be a tough sell:
Repeatedly admitting that you would gleefully control our free speech if not for that pesky Constitution makes you look bad dude. https://t.co/zHu8rbujqT
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) December 12, 2018
Um, yeah, just a little.
That would be great, Ted. If you didn't in the next breath say you hope that companies would do it themselves.
— Craig McLaughlin (@zemkai) December 12, 2018
Ted, stop with this nonsense. Anybody who’s followed you over any significant amount of time knows you’d shut down speech the moment you knew you could.
Just admit it. Don’t be a fraud.
— anthony lam (@antqlam) December 12, 2018
No. Republicans have never advocated for Regulating Anyone's speech especially speech we disagree with because that's the reason the First Amendment was added to the Constitution. #civics101
— Severe Conservative (@severeconservat) December 12, 2018
Suuuuure… pic.twitter.com/O9y7EyXSIn
— Gilmore Tuttle (@BulldogsTuttle) December 12, 2018
— Ron Barker (@wrongnowshutup2) December 12, 2018
— ??????????? ?? (@SisyphusGoals) December 12, 2018
He tried.
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