Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., slammed the House Oversight Committee's hearing on Twitter's decision to repress the Hunter Biden laptop story in the fall of 2020 and called the story "half-fake."
"We could be talking about the cost of prescription drugs, abortion rights, civil rights, voting rights, but instead we're talking about Hunter Biden's half fake laptop story. I mean this is an embarrassment, but I’ll go into it.," she said during the hearing.
The Democratic congresswoman also said the hearing was a waste of time and public resources.
On Wednesday, House Republicans are set to question Twitter executives who made the decision to censor the New York Post's story on Hunter Biden's laptop in the waning days of the 2020 presidential campaign.
Ocasio-Cortez said she wanted to submit a Washington Post article, headlined, "Now warning about Hunter Biden-laptop disinfo: The guy who leaked it," into the record.
She noted the paper's reporting and said there was an "immediate road block" for news organizations that hoped to "corroborate" reporting when the New York Post first came out with the story in October 2020.
"The newspaper wasn’t sharing what it obtained. New York Post had this alleged information and was trying to publish it without any corroboration, without any backup information, they were trying to publish it to Twitter. Twitter did not let them, and now they were upset. I believe that political operatives who sought to inject explosive disinformation with the Washington Post couldn’t get away with it and now they’re livid, and they want the ability to do that again," Ocasio-Cortez claimed during the hearing.
She said GOP political operatives wanted the ability to "do it again."
ELON MUSK REVEALS WHAT LEAD TO TWITTER SUPPRESSING HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY
"They want the ability to do it again. They want the ability to inject this again. So they’ve dragged a social media platform here in Congress, their weaponizing the use of this committee so that they can do it again. A whole hearing about a 24-hour hiccup in a right-wing political operation," she continued.
Republicans subpoenaed Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's former chief legal officer; James Baker, the company's former deputy general counsel, and Yoel Roth, former head of safety and integrity.
Liberal media outlets largely ignored the Hunter Biden laptop story until March 16, 2022 when the New York Times published a report about the federal investigations into alleged tax offenses the president's son is facing.
The Washington Post published its report about Hunter Biden's "multimillion-dollar" financial ties to the Chinese energy company CEFC China Energy days later.
CBS, NBC and CNN all released reports verifying the laptop throughout the year as well.
