Senate vote to subpoena Twitter CEO delayed

Dorsey’s testimony was supposed to provide an answer as to why the New York Post had been locked out of its Twitter account nearly five days ago, shortly after publishing a breaking a story on Hunter Biden’s alleged involvement in an influence peddling enterprise along with his then VP dad, Joe Biden. The hearing was going to also feature questioning of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s similar management of censorship on its platform. Facebook also suppressed the story.

Senator Ted Cruz and Chairman Lindsay Graham called for the hearing on Thursday, Oct. 15, notifying the public that the platform’s censorship was an issue of concern and that it would be addressed.

“In the last two days we have seen big tech—we have seen Facebook and Twitter actively interfering in this election in a way that has no precedent in the history of our country,” Cruz said. “The Senate Judiciary Committee wants to know what the hell is going on,”

Cruz and Graham said that the vote to put that hearing into motion would happen on Tuesday, Oct. 19.

When asked about potential procedural delays brought on by political opposition, Cruz said he did not believe that would be a source of interference.

“Democrats can certainly raise procedural objections; they can try to delay the subpoena. I don’t believe they will be successful. We are 19 days out from an election. That would be obvious and transparently political.”

However, it’s not just Democrats who were evidently on the fence about hearing testimony this week.

Reporting from Politico suggests that some GOP Panel members were unsure about proceeding with the hearing, citing concerns about how quickly the committee was moving towards a hearing.

So far, no one from the committee has commented publicly on the specific reasons they want to delay a vote, but it could be because of a confirmation meeting taking place on Thursday to approve Judge Amy Cony Berrett’s nomination to sit on the Supreme Court.

Despite the delays, Cruz, the Chair of the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, says he will make sure the Senate hears from both tech giants before Nov. 3.

“One way or another, either voluntarily or pursuant to subpoena, they will testify and they will testify before the election,” Cruz said.