Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Sunday that billionaire Elon Musk made a “terrible mistake” restoring former President Donald Trump’s banned Twitter account.
“As we showed in the Jan. 6 hearings, the president used that platform to incite that attack on the Capitol. His comments about the vice president ― his own vice president ― put Mike Pence’s life in danger,” Schiff, who serves on the House committee investigating the riot, said on ABC’s “This Week.”
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“He showed no remorse about that. He continues to lie about his actions on that day,” Schiff added. “He talks about pardoning the people who attacked police officers and attacked the Capitol that day.”
Schiff also noted that Musk was going against his own claim earlier this month when he said he would not allow any suspended Twitter users to return to the site until the company had established procedures on how to do so, including by forming a “content moderation council.”
“It contradicts what Elon Musk said that he was going to establish a counsel to evaluate this,” Schiff said. “And further contradicts Musk and his claimed concern about bots on his own platform to subject the decision to a poll on the platform that could be easily abused that way.”
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Trump was banned from the social media platform two days after a mob of his supporters violently stormed the Capitol in an attempt to halt Congress’ certification of the 2020 election. Trump had used the platform to spread lies that the election was “stolen” from him and encourage his supporters to fight the results.
Musk, who finalized his $44 billion takeover of Twitter last month, has swiftly implemented an array of chaotic changes to the company in his short time at the helm, including firing a large chunk of the company’s 7,500 full-time employees and ordering remaining employees to agree to do “extremely hardcore” work to keep the company going ― a demand that triggered a wave of mass resignations.
Though he originally pledged to establish a process for reinstating banned users, he reinstated Trump’s account after holding a poll that asked Twitter users to click “yes” or “no” on whether it should be restored.
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