Says Texas congressman voted “to give Joe Biden the power to shut down news sites that dare to challenge him.”
Tucker Carlson excoriated Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) as a “liar” for falsely claiming the the U.S. intelligence community doesn’t meddle in domestic news coverage.
Carlson was responding to remarks Crenshaw made to a reporter after the House passed a bill Wednesday that would ban TikTok in the U.S. unless the company finds a buyer not connected to the Chinese Communist Party.
“This is Rep. Dan Crenshaw as he walks out of the Capitol after voting to give Joe Biden the power to shut down news sites that dare to challenge him. Crenshaw tells reporter Liam Cosgrove that U.S. intel agencies don’t meddle in domestic news coverage, when of course he knows that’s untrue. Watch his face as he says it. Liar,” Carlson wrote on X Friday.
This is Rep. Dan Crenshaw as he walks out of the Capitol after voting to give Joe Biden the power to shut down news sites that dare to challenge him. Crenshaw tells reporter Liam Cosgrove that U.S. intel agencies don’t meddle in domestic news coverage, when of course he knows… pic.twitter.com/jcdCETV0NG
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 15, 2024
Crenshaw pushed back against Carlson in an X post, accusing the former Fox News host of “lying for attention, as usual.”
“Maybe since he lost his production assistants at Fox News he can no longer do basic research or read short legislation. Nothing in the TikTok bill gives anyone any authority to shut down news agencies,” Crenshaw wrote.
Tucker lying for attention, as usual. Maybe since he lost his production assistants at Fox News he can no longer do basic research or read short legislation. Nothing in the TikTok bill gives anyone any authority to shut down news agencies. Tucker is mad about a bill that simply… https://t.co/MycMlCWNUf
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) March 15, 2024
“Tucker is mad about a bill that simply stops the CCP from stealing the data of tens of millions Americans and using TikTok to push their propaganda. 90% of conservatives in the House voted for this bill. None of this is surprising, since Tucker never misses an opportunity to defend America’s enemies, and of course garner some clickbait on his Chinese TikTok account.”
“How much Chinese money does it take to do a complete 180 like this?” Crenshaw wrote in another X post, where he included a snippet of Carlson on his now-cancelled Fox News program showing support for the effort to to ban TikTok.
How much Chinese money does it take to do a complete 180 like this?#TikTokTucker https://t.co/W60fQVaukF
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) March 15, 2024
The substance of the current TikTok ban bill aside, Crenshaw’s remark to a reporter that intelligence agencies don’t meddle in domestic news coverage is a demonstrably provable lie.
Just look at the Hunter Biden laptop coverup in 2020, the Russia collusion hoax during Trump’s first term, or Big Tech’s coordinated censorship of Covid and vaccine coverage.
Critics of the TikTok ban bill, such as Elon Musk and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), argued that the ambiguous language of the legislation makes it a Trojan Horse that would grant the government the power to shut down any website it wants in the name of national security.
“This law is not just about TikTok, it is about censorship and government control!” Musk wrote on X this week. “If it were just about TikTok, it would only cite ‘foreign control’ as the issue, but it does not.”
This law is not just about TikTok, it is about censorship and government control!
If it were just about TikTok, it would only cite “foreign control” as the issue, but it does not. https://t.co/3hpePCE1nS
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 12, 2024
The so-called TikTok ban is a trojan horse.
The President will be given the power to ban WEB SITES, not just Apps.
The person breaking the new law is deemed to be the U.S. (or offshore) INTERNET HOSTING SERVICE or App Store, not the “foreign adversary.”https://t.co/iKtAQFGeQH pic.twitter.com/P26hEbzQrf
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 12, 2024
This is exactly why I didn’t trust the TikTok ban when I first heard Biden was for it.
He’d use it as a tool to censor all Americans.
— Paul A. Szypula ?? (@Bubblebathgirl) March 12, 2024
I’m old enough to remember when the Patriot Act was only passed so we could “monitor foreign terrorists”.
How did that work out?
— Wile E. Coyote (@Florida_Veteran) March 12, 2024