Watch Live: Hearing On How DHS Enables The Silencing Of Dissent

Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability is holding a hearing entitled “Censorship Laundering: How the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Enables the Silencing of Dissent” this afternoon and we thought it may be worth tuning in for some partisan fireworks.

Chairman Dan Bishop (R-NC) said the hearing was to examine possible government overreach in a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program that could be used to monitor mis-, dis-, and malinformation (MDM) posted online by American citizens.

“Time and time again, Biden and Mayorkas’ DHS has chosen censorship and suppression over free speech and put partisan games ahead of our national security. “

“The dystopian ‘Disinformation Governance Board’ wasn’t an aberration—it was the tip of the iceberg of their censorship laundering schemes,” Chairman Bishop said.

“This Subcommittee is demanding that DHS upholds its duty to secure America’s critical infrastructure and defend the homeland while safeguarding Americans’ constitutional rights. We won’t rest until we get full transparency and accountability.”

Martin Kulldorff, one of the most pilloried, censored, deplatformed, and outright banned of those dissenters – who just happened to be 1) an expert beyond reproach on the topic and 2) correct in everything he proclaimed – sums up the farce in the first paragraph of his prepared remarks:

Censorship can be deadly.

Freedom of speech is always important, but it is especially important during a national emergency such as a pandemic.

No authority is infallible, and when a new virus emerges, it is impossible for poli cians and public health officials to get things right without listening to discussions between a wide cast of scientists with different areas of expertise and thoughts.

…

Censorship inevitably leads to self-censoring. Some of my public health colleagues did not speak up for fear of being censored, silenced or slandered, like I was. I don’t blame them.

Witnesses include:

• Ben Weingarten – Investigative Journalist and Columnist

• Martin Kulldorff, PhD – Epidemiologist and Biostatistician (Full prepared remarks here)

• Cynthia Miller-Idriss, PhD – Professor, School of Public Affairs and School of Education Founding Director, Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab, American University

• Jonathan Turley – Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law, The George Washington University (Full written statement here)

Watch the hearing live here (due to start at 1400ET):