Home Republicans held their first hearings into Twitter’s dealing with of the New York Publish’s 2020 story on Hunter Biden’s laptop computer on Wednesday and CNN’s Inside Politics didn’t see what the massive deal was. Host John King sarcastically commented that it “sounds fairly ominous, proper?” whereas correspondent Donie O’Sullivan claimed “we haven’t seen the smoking gun of alleged collusion between the FBI and Huge Tech.”

After introducing the listening to, King performed a clip of Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer on the listening to declaring, “Instantly following the story’s publication, America witnessed a coordinated marketing campaign by social media corporations, mainstream information, and the intelligence communities to suppress and delegitimize the existence of Hunter Biden’s laptop computer and its contents. That morning, Twitter and different social media corporations took extraordinary steps to suppress that story.”

King responded to that summation by dismissing it, “Sounds fairly ominous, proper? However our CNN reporting says allegations of this collusion to suppress the story stay unsupported. No proof. Half a dozen tech executives and senior workers together with a number of federal officers have denied any directive and they did so once more in the present day.”

After introducing O’Sullivan, King repeated himself, “Donie, you’ve spent numerous time on this, when you take heed to Chairman Comer, the media, the federal government, Twitter, all colluded, it is a huge allegation, up to now although, he hasn’t been capable of join the dots.”

O’Sullivan started his response by proclaiming that Republicans are specializing in the flawed subject, “That is proper, John, and look, there’s a dialogue available right here and– but it surely does not appear like Comer is having that dialogue in the present day which is a dialogue of how ought to platforms, notably after 2016, after they noticed that overseas interference from Russia, , establishing faux teams and profiles pretending to be People, how ought to they deal with suggestions from authorities who might need perception into that.”

CNN ought to’ve mentioned that extra, contemplating over 50 “specialists” claimed the Hunter laptop computer story was disinformation, however following a clip Twitter lawyer and former FBI normal counsel Jim Baker, O’Sullivan continued:

Now, the 2 different former Fb executives who have been there in the present day, they stated that they thought it was a mistake for Twitter to initially for, you know, a day or so, limit the sharing of that notorious New York Publish Hunter Biden story. However what we have additionally heard, you know, is we have seen a lot the previous few months from the Twitter Recordsdata and so forth, however in the end, we’ve not seen the smoking gun of alleged collusion between the FBI and Huge Tech, to censor the Hunter Biden story. 

Whereas the FBI’s fingerprints is probably not straight on this story, that is actual life and smoking weapons usually are not all the time available. Head of Belief and Security Yoel Roth has claimed that Twitter was a part of a “tabletop train” on a Hunter “hack-and-dump” and that he was conditioned by the federal government to view such tales as potential Russian disinformation. We additionally know that the Hunter Biden laptop computer story just isn’t the one FBI-related a part of the Twitter Recordsdata.

Minutes later, King and O’Sullivan would conclude by recalling from the listening to that one former govt testified that the FBI would ship them tweets that they thought have been overseas, however weren’t. King conceded this may be “price exploring,” however as a substitute of exploring it, he went to industrial.

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Here’s a transcript for the February 8 present:

CNN Inside Politics

2/8/2023

12:16 PM ET

JOHN KING: You see the stay image proper there, proper now, a Home committee grilling former prime Twitter executives. It is the Republican majority’s first main listening to into their investigation into president Biden’s son Hunter. Republicans accused Twitter of working with the federal authorities to suppress tales about Hunter Biden’s laptop computer forward of the 2020 election. 

JAMES COMER: Instantly following the story’s publication, America witnessed a coordinated marketing campaign by social media corporations, mainstream information, and the intelligence communities to suppress and delegitimize the existence of Hunter Biden’s laptop computer and its contents. That morning, Twitter and different social media corporations took extraordinary steps to suppress that story. 

KING: Sounds fairly ominous, proper? However our CNN reporting says allegations of this collusion to suppress the story stay unsupported. No proof. Half a dozen tech executives and senior workers together with a number of federal officers have denied any directive and they did so once more in the present day. 

Let’s get extra with CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan joins us. Donie, you’ve spent numerous time on this, when you take heed to Chairman Comer, the media, the federal government, Twitter, all colluded, it is a huge allegation, up to now although, he hasn’t been capable of join the dots.

DONIE O’SULLIVAN: That is proper, John, and look, there’s a dialogue available right here and– but it surely does not appear like Comer is having that dialogue in the present day which is a dialogue of how ought to platforms, notably after 2016, after they noticed that overseas interference from Russia, , establishing faux teams and profiles pretending to be People, how ought to they deal with suggestions from authorities who might need perception into that. 

However that’s not what we’re seeing in the present day and that’s not what Comer and his colleagues are alleging and we heard from Jim Baker, previously of the FBI, he went on to work for Twitter as a lawyer after that, he testified beneath oath in the present day, that is what he stated. 

JIM BAKER: I am conscious of no illegal collusion with or path from any authorities company or political marketing campaign on how Twitter ought to have dealt with the Hunter Biden laptop computer state of affairs. Although many disagree with how Twitter dealt with the Hunter Biden matter, I consider that the public file reveals that my shopper acted in a way that was absolutely in line with the First Modification. 

O’SULLIVAN: Now, the 2 different former Fb executives who have been there in the present day, they stated that they thought it was a mistake for Twitter to initially for, you know, a day or so, limit the sharing of that notorious New York Publish Hunter Biden story. However what we have additionally heard, you know, is we have seen a lot the previous few months from the Twitter Recordsdata and so forth, however in the end, we’ve not seen the smoking gun of alleged collusion between the FBI and Huge Tech, to censor the Hunter Biden story.