Update: The Daily Signal's Tyler O'Neil has identified the book the Biden administration wanted to ban as "Anyone Who Tells You Vaccines Are Safe and Effective Is Lying," by Dr. Vernon Coleman. The book's description, which is currently available on Amazon, reads: "The facts about vaccination - so that you can make up your own mind. Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc FRSA has been researching and writing about vaccines for 50 years. He has lectured doctors and nurses on the subject. He used to debate vaccination on TV and radio but won every public debate and these days vaccine supporters will no longer debate with him."
Republican-led state legislatures have been leading the way to keep pornographic materials out of schools and public libraries. While reasonable people wouldn't want books depicting sex acts available to young children, the radical left was outraged and accused conservatives of civil rights violations for "banning books."
"Every stride forward in America is met with a ferocious backlash, many times from those who fear progress and those who exploit that fear for their own personal gain; from those who traffic in lies told for power and profit; from those who are driven by grievance and grift, consumed by conspiracy and victimhood; from those who seek to bury history and ban books," Joe Biden said during his annual speech exploiting the anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot. "Did you ever think you’d be at a political event talking about book banning for a presidential — in a presidential election?"
It turns out we are. Internal emails from Amazon released by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) show that the Biden administration pressured the company to censor books the administration had deemed “propaganda” and "misinformation." The New York Post reports:
The documents were obtained by the House Judiciary Committee and the Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government via subpoena, Jordan said in a X thread Monday, which he dubbed, “THE AMAZON FILES.”
“Who can we talk to about the high levels of propaganda and misinformation and disinformation of [sic] Amazon?” Andrew Slavitt, a former White House senior advisor for COVID-19 response, wrote to the online retailer in a March 2, 2021, email, released by Jordan.
“If you search for ‘vaccines’ under books, I see what comes up,” Slavitt wrote in a follow up message that same day. “I haven’t looked beyond that but if that’s what’s on the surface, it’s concerning.”
Related: New Jersey Bill Would Allow Teachers to Give Obscene Material to Minors
Now, bear in mind that none of the efforts to keep obscene books out of the hands of children banned anything. There was never any effort to stop retailers from selling these books. So, yes, we will have to talk about banning books this presidential election, because that's what the Biden administration was trying to do.
Amazon officials initially balked at performing “a manual intervention” to remove certain book titles from appearing, arguing that it would be “too visible” and lead to further scrutiny.
“We will not be doing a manual intervention today,” an email between Amazon executives reads. “The team/PR feels very strongly that it is too visible, and will further compound the Harry/Sally narrative (which is getting the Fox News treatment today apparently), and won’t fix the problem long-term … because of customer behavior associates.”
The Amazon officials, whose name is redacted from the email, then notes that another individual at the company, whose name is also redacted, “gave very direct guidance to the teams to be boring and not do anything that is visible and will draw more attention.”
Never-before-released internal emails subpoenaed by @JudiciaryGOP reveal that the Biden White House pressured Amazon to censor books that expressed views the White House did not approve of.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 5, 2024
“Is the [Biden] Admin asking us to remove books”? pic.twitter.com/ZsAN9BZAcX
Once again, we have a classic example of the left accusing the right of doing things the left is actually doing.
Rep. Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, has announced both committees will be investigating.
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