Democratic House Representative Sylvia Garcia does not understand how the internet works, or the First Amendment.
Here, she apparently thinks she’s setting herself up for a slam dunk on journalist Matt Taibbi by asking him what conditions he agreed to in order to be given the Twitter Files.
Taibbi explains that the conditions were that he attribute Twitter as the source and publish the findings of his investigation on Twitter.
“First, sir, or did you give it… to the committee first?”
“The thread came out first?”
“Where?” she asks.
“On Twitter,” Taibbi replies, clearly confused about the line of questioning.
“But you didn’t break it on Twitter. Did you send the file that you released today to Twitter first?”
Taibbi is, by this point, legitimately confused. He begins to understand that the woman he is talking to does not understand how Twitter works. Neither does she grasp, apparently, the practice of journalism.
Here's @RepSylviaGarcia getting a crash course in why trying to play "gotcha" w/ @mtaibbi and @ShellenbergerMD about the #TwitterFiles is never a good idea.
(The facial expressions from Taibbi and Shellenberger at the end tho lololol) pic.twitter.com/8wATMuY4fT
— Meara (@MillennialOther) March 9, 2023
From there, Garcia’s line of questioning sort of implodes into itself, as she has no plan for where to take it next.
Garcia’s South Texas district is not sending its best.
As PJ Media’s Matt Margolis reported, Garcia also in the same hearing exposes the astonishing fact that she doesn’t know who Bari Weiss is — by no means a favorite journalist of mine but indisputably extremely well-known and prolific in the public discourse. She was a prominent writer for the New York Times (the liberal Bible) until her recent resignation.
The point here is that anyone who stays abreast of current events — even normie libs — ought to at least be tangentially aware of Weiss’ existence as a journalist of note.
She interrogates the other journalist present for the inquisition, Michael Shellenberger, about whether “his friend” Bari Weiss works for Twitter. Taibbi informs her that Weiss is a journalist, to which Garcia replies: “Sir, I didn’t ask you a question.”
“Yes, ma’am, Barry Weiss is a journalist,” Shellenberger answers, barely repressing a grin.
“So you work in concert with her?” Garcia presses.
“So you’re in this as a threesome?” Garcia concludes, referencing Taibbi, Shellenberger, and Weiss. Garcia, by all appearances, fails to understand the absurdity of her questioning.
Related: DeSantis Announces ‘Digital Bill of Rights’ to Take on Tech-Government Censorship Collusion
The whole thing has the ambiance of a geriatric, part-time substitute teacher retiree in public school who was deeply respected in his time as an architect or whatever. Bored at home, he moonlights in the classroom while the regular teacher is on maternity leave as a sort of public service but is clearly out of his element and should have stayed home to enjoy his golden years.
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