House GOP threatened Twitter board with political retribution if they didn't sell to Musk

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Matthew Gertz
@MattGertz
Before Elon Musk and Twitter got to a deal, House Republicans threatened the company's board with political retribution if they didn't sell. Outright gangsterism.

mediamatters.org
With attack on Twitter, the right shows it has institutionalized Trump’s corrupt use of government...
12:22 PM · Apr 25, 2022

https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/attack-twitter-right-shows-it-has-institutionalized-trumps-corrupt-use-government

“Nice company you’ve got there; be a shame if something happened to it. Maybe you should save yourself some trouble and sell it to our buddy.”

That’s the message 18 House Republicans, led by Judiciary Committee ranking member Jim Jordan (R-OH), sent on Friday with a letter demanding Twitter’s board of directors preserve all records related to the bid by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to purchase the company. The right’s propagandists had celebrated Musk’s bid as a way to garner political gain by ending the company’s purported political censorship. Then its elected GOP champions, responding to hesitation from and when Twitter’s board, raised the prospect of a costly congressional investigation if his offer wasn’t accepted.

The GOP’s ham-fisted threat reflects the party’s institutionalization of former President Donald Trump’s authoritarian use of government power to impose political retribution on individual companies that defied him -- particularly those that owned news outlets. Now, Republicans are adopting similar strategies in the name of fighting so-called “woke capital,” and right-wing media are cheering them on.

Trump regularly used legitimate regulatory tools to illegitimate ends, punishing corporations over news reporting that displeased him while favoring those whose programming praised him.

Trump’s opposition to AT&T’s proposed purchase of Time Warner, declared in the waning days of the 2016 presidential race, was nakedly corrupt. There are legitimate reasons to worry about such megamergers. But Trump was clearly driven by his desire to impose costs on Time Warner for the critical coverage of him and his administration by its subsidiary, CNN. Once Trump took office, he could use the power of the federal government to enforce his authoritarian whims. The Justice Department filed an unusual and ultimately ineffective lawsuit aimed at stopping it.

*snip*

[global1]

1. And We Know What They Are Doing And....

we just let it happen. I don't get it.

[Chicago1980]

7. And what were 'we' going to do about it?

[CrackityJones75]

11. Well I hold YOU personally reaponsible.

[asiliveandbreathe]

2. Nice company ya' keepin' there elon...cat out of bag by your goons in

congress..

[Make7]

3. ​

https://twitter.com/JudiciaryGOP/statuses/1517492009790889986

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

14. "prevents informed public discourse"

From the likes of Donald Trump, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor-Greene?

[keep_left]

24. And Drumpf has his own media megaphone, the moronic "Truth Social".

The only thing stopping him from making it work is his own micromanagement and incompetence (including stealing public-domain code and then still managing to fail). And Drumpf has hardly even used it (only one post, I think).

[Comfortably_Numb]

25. Jesus fucking Christ.... That signature roster reads like a human sphincters R Us roster

[Diamond_Dog]

4. Doesn't the House either vote on an investigation

or the Speaker initiates it? I’m sorry for being so ignorant.

Even that malevolent turd Jordan and his criminal buddies couldn’t begin an investigation on their own, surely?

[BumRushDaShow]

22. They are measuring the drapes for what they think will be the aftermath of the upcoming election

and this is apparently on their checklist of things "to do" come January 2023 and beyond.

[Tickle]

32. What do they

expect to find?

[BumRushDaShow]

33. They don't have to "find" anything

It's all a 3-ring circus that will get media attention like "Benghazi® !!1!!!1!!!" and "But her emails® !!11!!!" in order to keep the media talking about how "bad" Democrats are doing so the GOP can gain more nightmarish control over our lives.

[Marius25]

5. The entire Republican party needs to be arrested

[I_UndergroundPanther]

9. The entire republican party

Belongs in gitmo.

I rarely use twitter but if rich fascist asshole buys it I will close my account pronto. Fuck the republican ogliarch gangster fascists. I hope they all die off and soon. Greedy adult-child sociopath fuckers.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

15. Fuck Musk, his Space Programs, his Teslas,

and now Twitter.

[Marius25]

16. Elon already bought it. Was approved by the board

[I_UndergroundPanther]

29. How do you delete a twit account

I never downloaded the app but I can post there. Hardly ever do ,I just want to close it down

[Marius25]

30. In one of the drop downs, select settings and privacy

should be an option to Deactivate. Select 30 days. Account closes in 30 days in case you change your mind.

[Rebl2]

23. I agree

They act like the mafia anymore.

[miyazaki]

6. and who else had the time to make an offer?

[dalton99a]

10. Kick

[Buns_of_Fire]

13. That letter would look nice as a two-page ad in the NYT.

And the Washington Post. And the WSJ. And the L.A. Times. And USA Today. Hell, even in the Daily Mail. They've got the money to do it.

Many have said that the criminal qpublicans can't be shamed. I think they can, but first one has to get pissed off at the sheer arrogance and be determined to actually do it. With names attached.

[ancianita]

17. Then the Twitter board should file a formal complaint with the FBI and SEC.

Coercion is illegal.

[Ilsa]

18. If DeSatan can get away with it in FL, why not them?

I'm considering vlosing my twitter account. I'm not fond of rising tides in sewers.

[Meadowoak]

19. i couldnt care less about twitter, but what we do need, is a media

that wont make it breaking news everytime that orange baboon tweets.

[C Moon]

20. I'll bet musk was promised more than Twitter if he bought it.

[Mr.Bill]

21. No one who signed that letter

has the authority to give such an order. Power in Congress is not singular, it is collective.

Any lawyer would laugh at it.

[UTUSN]

26. K&R

[keithbvadu2]

27. Soon to be renamed Foxter or Twitmax?

Soon to be renamed Foxter or Twitmax?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

28. Hey GQP, you are corrupt and "nakedly corrupt" too. . . .nt

[JudyM]

31. K&R

[Achilleaze]

34. Another Republican lie: we believe in free enterprise

Ha ha - there's nothing conservative about these radical thuggy republican reprobates