Threats Facing Conservative Speech

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLOUD. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Buck for his leadership on this and thank him for bringing us together for this important conversation.

The First Amendment recognizes what we understand to be a God-given right, the right to freedom of speech and the right to free press.

Tragically, Americans have seen their government conspire against them recently. We have seen parents targeted at school board meetings. We have seen pro-life activists brought under light by the strong hand of their government.

Too many times, American companies have joined in this effort. We have seen once-great American companies become the enforcement arm of a radical, woke, left agenda. They have enforced and become the authoritarian enforcement for this effort. But Americans are aware of what is happening.

Too many times, we have seen them go after people who voiced concerns over COVID lockdowns and vaccines on social media. Now, they are going after news channels that air stories that they disagree with.

Last year, several Members on the other side of this aisle sent letters to several cable and satellite providers, including DIRECTV, demanding that they stop showing OAN, Newsmax, and Fox. In recent weeks, we have seen AT&T's DIRECTV cave to the Democrats' anti-American and Marxist demands by demonetizing Newsmax and OAN.

Many Americans are concerned. They realize that their government's suppression of speech is the mark of totalitarianism. We are committed to pushing back on this administration's attempt to silence and suppress the American people.

To those on the left, I would simply ask this: If you have to work this hard, if you have to use censorship, coercion, and suppression for your ideas to gain any traction, maybe you have bad ideas.

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