RUSH: I tell you, our new senator from Missouri, Josh Hawley? This guy is the real deal. I remember Josh Hawley. I introduced President Trump at the last rally of the 2018 midterms. It was in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, my hometown. Josh Hawley was there since it was in Missouri, and he got some speaking time at it. He’s got hell of a voice. Those of us in the voice business, we say, “He’s got a really, really great set of pipes.”
But Josh Hawley, he is all over these tech guys. And there is testimony going on today, Zuckerberg and what’s his name, the Rasputin-looking guy, Jack Dorsey from Twitter. And they’re all up there testifying. And it’s all such a joke. Kathryn and I were watching some congressional testimony, Senate testimony yesterday, or maybe we were watching some senators who were getting ready for this today.
They were talking about how, “We’re not gonna let these guys get away with this! We’re not gonna (grumbling).” And I said, “You know, they say this before the hearing, and at the hearing, nothing happens. And they tell us that they’re gonna get to the bottom what happened to Russia probe, and they never get to the bottom of it.” They just pontificate. They just throw us a bunch of crumbs.
But when it comes down to time for the pedal to hit the metal, the rubber to hit the road, nothing ever happens, nothing ever changes. But it might be different with Josh Hawley someday because he really had Zuckerberg kind of sputtering and fuming in there today. Under oath, under questioning by Josh Hawley of Missouri. Zuckerberg admits that Facebook does have “tools” to track its users across the internet, across platforms, across accounts without user knowledge.
He asked specifically, “Do you have the ability to coordinate…?” He was asking about their censorship, essentially. He’s asking Zuckerberg, “Do you have the ability to coordinator with Twitter and with Instagram? Do you have the ability to coordinate?” Zuckerberg paused and said, “Senator, let me be very, very, very, very, very clear about this. We do. We do have the ability to, uh, coordinate when it comes to matters of security.”
“Like what?”
“Well, like terrorism, national security. We have the ability to coordinate.”
Well, what Zuckerberg just admitted is they have the ability to coordinate, period. If they can coordinate with Twitter, if they can join Twitter and figure out who to censor, if Zuckerberg and Dorsey decide they want to censor somebody they can do it and they can coordinate it… Because if they can do this with terrorism, they could do it with anybody.
So under oath, Josh Hawley got Zuckerberg to admit that Facebook does have tools to track its users across the internet — across platforms, across accounts — all without user knowledge. Hawley says, “I asked how many times this tool has been used domestically against Americans, and Zuckerberg won’t say. A Facebook whistleblower tells me it’s called ‘Sentra,’” this cross-platform tool thing they’ve got.
Zuckerberg said he couldn’t recall the name. He’s only the company CEO. After all, there’s a lot of people that work there. At any rate, I watched this, and my mouth fell open. I was stunned that Zuckerberg admitted this. He tried to limit its impact by saying, “Oh, no, you only do this during times of national security.”
Based on the way the question that was asked, he admitted that he and Dorsey, and if they want to get together with the Google guys, they have this ability — and we knew this anyway! We knew they had this massive ability. They’re IT experts. Here’s another one. Senator Cruz. Senator Ted Cruz was talking to the Rasputin-looking guy, Jack Dorsey of Twitter.
Ted Cruz said, “Mr. Dorsey, does voter fraud exist?” and Dorsey said, “I don’t know for certain.” Ted Cruz said, “Are you an expert in voter fraud?” Dorsey said, “No, I’m not.” Ted Cruz said, “Well, then why is Twitter right now putting purported warnings on virtually any statement about voter fraud?” This is under all of Trump’s tweets is what this is.
Every Trump tweet about voter fraud has a warning that you can’t trust it, that it’s not true, that it’s un-whatever — verified, whatever it is. So they’ll have a Trump tweet, and what it’ll say is, “This claim about election fraud is disputed.” That’s the way they do it. That’s what Twitter does to every Trump tweet.
But Cruz gets Dorsey to admit that he’s not an expert in voter fraud. So what the heck is Twitter doing engaging in policing it? Why is Twitter putting warnings on virtually any Trump tweet? I think we got the sound bite that just came in here. Let’s… Here it is. Sound bites 33 and 34. Here it is. This is the first one — 33 — that gets it.
CRUZ: Mr. Dorsey, does voter fraud exist?
DORSEY: I don’t know for certain.
CRUZ: Are you an expert in voter fraud?
DORSEY: No, I’m not.
CRUZ: Well, why, then, is Twitter right now putting purported warnings on virtually any statement about voter fraud?
DORSEY: We’re simply linking to a broader conversation so people have more information.
CRUZ: No. No, you’re not. You put up a page that says, quote, “Voter fraud of any kind is exceedingly rare in the United States.” That’s not linking to a broader conversation. That’s taking a disputed policy position, and you’re a publisher when you’re doing that. You’re entitled to take a policy position, but you don’t get pretend you’re not a publisher and get a special benefit under Section 230 as a result.
RUSH: A-ha! So this was Ted Cruz moving in on Section 230. Something does need to be done about that. It allows these guys to say and do whatever they want. It allows them to be protected against any liability. They can hide behind whatever their screwball users say. I love this idea that Kookville is conservative media. Kookville is Twitter.
But, anyway, I want to go back to basic question and answer here.
Ted Cruz asked him, “Does voter fraud exist?” “I don’t know.” “Are you an expert in voter fraud?” “No, I’m not.” “Well, then what the hell are you doing policing it?” What this guy would say if he had the guts is, “Because I have the power to do it, and you can’t stop me, and I hate Republicans and I’m gonna do everything I can to make sure they don’t win!” That would be Jack Dorsey’s honest answer if he cared to engage in it.
Here’s the next bite where Dorsey says he has no knowledge on the subject, and Ted Cruz proves it.
CRUZ: Are you aware that just two weeks ago in the state of Texas, a woman was charged with 134 counts of election fraud? Are you aware of that?
DORSEY: I’m not aware of that.
CRUZ: If I tweeted that statement with a link to the indictment, would you put a warning on it that says, “Well, the Democratic Party position right now is voter fraud doesn’t exist?”
DORSEY: I don’t think it’s useful to get into hypotheticals, but I don’t believe so.
CRUZ: You don’t believe so. Well, we’re gonna test that ’cause I’m gonna tweet that and we’ll see what you put on it.
RUSH: Oh. So Ted Cruz is going to tweet that a woman was charged with 134 counts of election fraud. Dorsey doesn’t know anything about it. We’ll see what Twitter does. Dorsey’s hustling now to make sure nobody touches that tweet of Ted Cruz’s.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I want you to hear the sound bite from Josh Hawley. I told you about it earlier, but I want you to hear it. These guys who are experts in everything — experts in voter fraud, experts in censorship, experts in knowing who should be able to say what — show up to Washington to be queried by these senators who really don’t know much about the subject themselves (ahem), and they don’t know anything.
It’s amazing how ignorant Jack Dorsey admits that he is. It’s amazing how Zuckerberg freely admits that he doesn’t know all that much about things. Josh Hawley said, “Mr. Zuckerberg, tell me about Centra. What is the Facebook internal tool called Centra? What is that?”
ZUCKERBERG: Senator, I’m not aware of a tool with that name.
HAWLEY: Centra is a tool that Facebook uses to track its users not just on Facebook but across the entire internet. Centra —
RUSH: Stop the tape and recue this. Josh Hawley just asked the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg… Do something with the hair. I mean, there’s gotta be a better option. Anyway, “Senator, I’m not aware of any tool with that name.” He asks the CEO to tell him about Centra, Facebook internal tool, and Zuckerberg doesn’t even know that. He doesn’t even know what that is — and listen to Hawley explain to him what it is.
ZUCKERBERG: Senator, I’m not aware of a tool with that name.
HAWLEY: Centra is a tool that Facebook uses to track its users, not just on Facebook, but across the entire internet. Centra tracks different profiles that a user visits, their message recipients, their linked accounts, the pages they visit around the Web that have Facebook buttons. Centra also uses behavioral data to monitor users’ accounts even if those accounts are registered under a different name — and you can see a screenshot provided to us of the Centra platform. Mr. Zuckerberg, how many accounts in the United States have been subject to review and shut down through Centra?
ZUCKERBERG: Senator, I do not know because I’m not actually familiar with the name of that tool. I’m sure that we have tools that help us with our platform and community integrity work, but I am not familiar with that name.
HAWLEY: Do you have a tool that does exactly what I described and that you can see here over my shoulder, or are you saying that that doesn’t exist?
ZUCKERBERG: Senator, I’m saying that I’m not familiar with it and that I’d be happy to follow up and get you and your team the information that you would like on this.
HAWLEY: It’s always amazing to me, Mr. Chairman, how many people before this committee suddenly develop amnesia. Maybe it is something about the air in the room.
RUSH: Well, I don’t think it’s the air in the room.
I think it’s that they’re not afraid of you.
I think it’s that they know nothing’s gonna happen.
They’re gonna say whatever they say, they’re gonna sit there and tell you whatever they tell you, and they’re gonna leave — except they’re already at home because of the COVID virus. They’re not gonna go anywhere. They’re not going to answer your question. They don’t know anything. And until you do something about Section 230 or some other process, you are never gonna get the answers that you want.
