Comedian Bill Maher hailed Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, saying the company needs a new "sheriff” after it ignored the First Amendment when it booted the New York Post off the platform following its 2020 Hunter Biden laptop report.
“The argument to me is, has Twitter failed in setting themself up in the past as the judge of what can go out there? And I would say yes, you have,” Maher said on his “Real Time” Friday show on HBO.
“You failed when you threw the New York Post off of Twitter for talking about Hunter Biden’s emails. And it turned out that was a real story. You failed when you said we couldn’t read about whether COVID had come from a lab. You failed.”
Twitter was recently purchased by Musk for $44 billion to privatize the company and make it a more free speech platform.
The Post’s October 2020 story triggered a lockout on its account with Twitter that lasted more than two weeks over charges it used hacked information. Twitter also blocked users from sharing the link to the article indicating that Hunter Biden introduced President Joe Biden to the Ukrainian businessman, calling the link “potentially harmful.”
Then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey later called the move “a mistake.”
The Washington Post and The New York Times earlier this year later confirmed the existence of Hunter Biden’s laptop. The Times reported it had reviewed “a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop,” that were authenticated by people involved in the investigation in Biden’s business dealings.
Musk himself criticized Twitter's top lawyer for banning stories on Hunter Biden's laptop after it was reported she cried when talking to staffers after Musk’s purchase deal had been completed.
"Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate," Musk replied to a tweet that featured a screenshot from a Politico story: "Twitter's top lawyer reassures staff, cries during meeting about Musk takeover."
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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