@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
In one 18-month period in the early 1970s, there were 2,500 bombings on American soil—nearly 5 a day. Did you know that? Many Americans don't. These leftist terrorists who declared war on America went on to work at top law firms, nonprofits, and Ivy League universities. 🧵
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
King George Soros is bankrolling "No Kings Day"—a national day of riots—on June 14th through one of his leftist NGOs. Soros financed the mass migration crisis. Now he's mobilizing his army of illegal aliens and far-left activists to try to stop President Trump from ending it. 🧵 https://t.co/hPaiOgVqfA
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The Left wants to nationalize the riots in Los Angeles. On June 14th—the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army—they're planning to organize 1,500 "No Kings Day" protests across the country. They call it a "nationwide day of defiance." https://t.co/NhxWRvq8eH
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The organizing group, Indivisible, was founded in 2016 to fund, organize and mobilize anti-America and anti-Trump protests. It has received more than $7.5 million from George Soros since 2017. https://t.co/BI5lMa0UN6
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
These protests aren't confined to Los Angeles or New York City—they want them to spread deep into the heartland. Over a dozen are planned in my home state of Missouri. https://t.co/3d1HlprXJX
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
And not just in St. Louis and Kansas City—but in small towns like Fayette, Maryville, Union, and Clinton. This is one of the more brazen acts by the Left and the Soros empire since the BLM "Summer of Love" burned down towns and cities across America in 2020.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
President Trump will control the unrest as he has in Los Angeles. My office is working with state and local law enforcement to keep Missourians safe. Violent acts will be met with the full force of the law. We are not going to let them run the 2020 playbook. Never again. https://t.co/U8WLno7vxh
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
A symptom of TDS now includes Democrats blocking the U.S. Ambassador to The Vatican in time for the Pope’s installation this weekend. Sadly, I don’t think they’ve hit rock bottom yet. https://t.co/q7PalHk6uI
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Until yesterday, the Biden Administration's "Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism" was classified. Now, thanks to @DNIGabbard, it's public. It's a roadmap for left-wing ideological warfare. 🧵 https://t.co/gKgfob43Xh
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
In June 2021, the Biden admin released its public strategy for "countering domestic terrorism." In a lawsuit, @America1stLegal discovered that there was a separate, classified version of that plan. But the private version wasn't public—until now. https://t.co/eQ6fJtwaGZ
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
This was written in the early months of the Biden presidency. But it lays out, in detail, exactly what they would go on to do—and how they justified it. By adopting the framework of "domestic terrorism" (DT), they could effectively treat their critics as enemies of the state.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
What's remarkable about the document is that it's an explicitly ideological vision. Its scope extends far beyond criminal violence—it encompasses online speech, education, gun control, even election participation. It's a strategy to suppress not just individuals, but IDEAS. https://t.co/pHt7f1CjkZ
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The plan lays out a four-pillar strategy: 1) Understand and Share DT-Related Information 2) Prevent DT Recruitment and Mobilization to Violence 3) Disrupt and Deter DT Activity 4) Confront Long-Term Contributors to DT That's a lot of jargon. Here's what it actually means. https://t.co/tVUSssdfuO
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Pillar One is information-sharing—that's the "whole-of-government" strategy in practice. They wanted every arm of the government to be a partner in this. Remember, when this document refers to "domestic terrorism" (DT), we know what they mean—because they publicly told us: https://t.co/5pMXXZfSlu
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Pillar Two is preventing "recruitment" and "mobilization." In practice, this meant mobilizing the security state to censor and suppress right-wingers. We know this, because it was detailed in the thousands of pages of documents we unearthed when I sued the Biden admin in 2021. https://t.co/p5sPcr3EJ1
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The plan lays out the roadmap for how the Biden administration would partner with powerful "third-party" actors—Big Tech, left-wing NGOs, anti-"hate" groups, etc—to implement this censorship regime. I explained exactly how that system worked here: https://t.co/vNDBYyAo8r
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Pillar Three is about transforming the mission of the security state to place a higher priority on prosecuting "domestic terrorism," and pushing for expanded power to pursue that agenda. And that's what they did. In Biden's first year, the FBI more than doubled its DT caseload. https://t.co/FNDCoRdacN
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Once again, we know what "DT" meant, because we saw it in practice. Pro-life activists, parents, traditional Catholics, conservatives in the military—all were targets. The plan goes so far as to discuss putting Americans with no ties to foreign terrorism on terror watchlists: https://t.co/KQUcl8QwOz
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Pillar Four is just openly advocating for the entire federal government to become a vehicle for leftism. It calls for funding "civics education" to teach "action civics" (read: left-wing activism) and wielding law enforcement to "mitigate xenophobia and bias" in COVID policy. https://t.co/OQ3f65tspR
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Finally, as you can see above, it calls for a ban on "assault weapons and high-capacity magazines." Once again, this was a preview of how they would operate—the Biden admin regularly used the specter of "domestic terror" as a pretext to push for crackdowns on gun rights. https://t.co/mHzulFfeY9
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
When it dropped in 2021, the public version of this "domestic terrorism" plan generated a huge backlash. It was the first time in U.S. history that a president had ever come out with a national plan to combat "domestic terrorism." Even the hard-left ACLU came out against it. https://t.co/dczwcvzxmq
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
But the private, internal one is worse. It's specific, direct, and doesn't hide behind vague, sweeping generalities. When read in light of everything the Biden administration went on to do, their overarching goals are crystal clear. We can never let this happen again. End 🧵
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
It's hard to overstate how big this is. For years, the State Department ran a global censorship operation—not just in America, but across the West. Now, it's pushing free speech instead. Here's why this matters. 🧵
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The "disinformation" and "hate speech" industry is one of the top threats to Western freedom today. "From its very beginnings," @SecRubio writes, this industry "has existed to protect the American establishment from the voices of forgotten Americans."
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
As Attorney General of Missouri, I sued the Biden admin for working with Big Tech to censor conservatives. We took them all the way to the Supreme Court. That case—Missouri v. Biden—led to the release of thousands of pages of documents detailing a vast censorship enterprise. https://t.co/YffN43srog
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Piece by piece, we uncovered exactly how this system worked. Under Biden, government agencies funded an army of third-party censors and "disinformation" groups to do what they couldn't legally do themselves—censor American speech. More details here: https://t.co/vNDBYyAo8r
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
One of the nerve centers of this censorship machine was the State Department's Global Engagement Center (GEC). Founded under Obama, the GEC was originally billed as a way to combat FOREIGN propaganda. But it began to target Americans—under the guise of fighting "disinformation." https://t.co/i8LTeUKzcB
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
And it wasn't just Americans. The GEC funded and worked with powerful NGOs pushing speech restrictions and creating advertiser blacklists—designed to crush conservative media—across the West. Your tax dollars were funding a global war against conservatives. As Rubio writes: https://t.co/1I03Q8VCks
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
These people were very good at burying their radicalism in neutral, harmless euphemisms—"disinformation," "information integrity," etc. But in practice, they were almost exclusively going after right-wing speech. This was an international effort to silence criticism of the Left.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
For example: One GEC-funded group, the London-based Global Disinformation Index, compiled blacklists of media outlets to feed to advertisers—essentially a form of financial warfare against disfavored outlets. The top 10 outlets on its "disinformation" list were all on the right. https://t.co/sdjGwfu3dF
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Last year, I led a fight in Congress to shutter the GEC for good. The agency was supposed to sunset at the end of 2024. But the Biden State Department simply renamed it, kept all the same employees, and tried to smuggle it into the next administration. https://t.co/Zfmi7fDTys
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
That's how the administrative state works. It morphs and adapts to protect itself. But now, those of us in Congress who pushed for these reforms have an administration that shares our goals. As Rubio writes today: "Whatever name it goes by, GEC is dead. It will not return." https://t.co/M0VsQrrfAN
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
This is a huge step in dismantling the Left's censorship enterprise. Free speech—and in particular, free speech online—is one of the major battlefields of our time. It's one of the fights that will define whether we win or lose on everything else. It's a big, big win.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Across the West, our civilization is threatened by a radical network of NGOs. These groups lie behind almost every crisis of our time—from mass censorship to mass migration. Tomorrow, we're going to expose their war on freedom of speech. 🧵 https://t.co/f2my8f4yxJ
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
In the internet age, information is power. The Left knows the stakes. That's why they've waged a decade-long, multi-billion-dollar campaign to control what you see and say online. I explained how their censorship operation works earlier this month: https://t.co/vNDBYyzQiT
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
This operation is a dangerous marriage of public and private power—a global system of security agencies, tech firms, activist groups, nonprofits, media orgs and government bureaucracies taking what they describe as a "whole-of-society" approach to censoring disfavored speech. https://t.co/L6mLLdhyTt
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
All of this is completely unprecedented. It's an entirely new, sprawling system of speech and thought control—far more powerful and far-reaching than anything we've seen the past, built with and for the new technology of the digital age. And most of it operates in the shadows. https://t.co/wzUlFSCaYx
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The censorship enterprise is enabled by a vast ecosystem of "non-governmental organizations" (NGOs). These groups represent a fifth column in American politics—a shadow state that serves the interests of the ruling elite, with no accountability to the society it wields power in. https://t.co/RWL0w9nv5F
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
I went into detail about who these groups are, what they do, and how they coordinate with elites in government and elsewhere in my thread earlier this month. We'll get into it much more in tomorrow's hearing too. But let me briefly tell you why this is of such urgent importance.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
In the 21st century, the internet is the new public square. This is where people get the information they need to understand the world. It's where they read, write, argue, and learn. It's where they shape the ideas that will define the future. It's where politics happens. https://t.co/oJ4xGrtP7E
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
That's why this fight matters. The fight for freedom of speech online is the fight for a free people's right to access, analyze, share and discuss information on their own terms, and to draw their own conclusions. In that sense, it's the fight for self-government itself.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The assault on free speech across the West isn't happening in a vacuum. It's inextricably connected to the war on our shared history, heritage, and identity. In other parts of the West—where the crisis is much further along—politicians admit this openly: https://t.co/wYgCtgEfr0
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
You heard the Australian Premier above: They need censorship to carry out their entire social agenda. In America, too, this is part of a much deeper war on *who we are.* It's a tool to silence the critics of the disastrous social transformation that the Left wants to carry out.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
And—as we'll discuss tomorrow—it's all funded by your tax dollars. The sprawling labyrinth of leftist NGOs, nonprofits, foundations and activist groups that drive this agenda don't just work hand-in-glove with their friends in the federal bureaucracy; they're paid by them, too.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
At our hearing, we'll be exposing all of this with three of the world's leading experts on the vast censorship enterprise—all of whom have been warriors for free speech: @MZHemingway, @JonathanTurley and @bhweingarten. Tomorrow. 2 PM. You won't want to miss this one. — End
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The Left spent the past decade building a vast censorship enterprise. A shadowy network of NGOs, tech groups and governments working to censor the Left's enemies—not just in America, but across the West. Over the next four years, the GOP must expose + dismantle this system. 🧵 https://t.co/XH2EkdGaoM
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The censorship-industrial complex wasn't built overnight. It's been festering for years. But the Biden administration mobilized an unholy alliance of government power, taxpayer dollars, NGOs and Big Tech companies to build it into a global censorship powerhouse.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Seemingly every agency was a partner in building this system: FBI, CIA, NSA, DHS, State Department, Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, USAID—even FEMA. Through grants and partnerships, these agencies funneled countless tax dollars to censorship groups. https://t.co/GahTDypN0Z
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
What you have to understand is that these groups operate as one cohesive class. There's a revolving door between the "public" and "private" spheres. Former government officials populate the advisory boards of these "disinformation" groups—and vice versa. https://t.co/jspbxJHAIW
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Biden's transition team was STACKED with tech insiders. They staffed the entire executive branch—State, Treasury, EPA, OMB, etc. Many of them were Obama alumni. When Obama left office, they went to work in tech. When Biden's presidency began, they transitioned right back in. https://t.co/JLJxbD0amy
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
So it should come as no surprise that these worlds are in constant communication with one another. Remember Jen Psaki boasting that they were "flagging problematic posts" for Facebook? These weren't independent actors. Under the Biden administration, it was one system. https://t.co/m2HyXSkZo4
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
And Biden officials didn't just "flag" content. They pushed platforms to transform their algorithms to suppress ideas they disliked. In an email, Biden's Digital Director told YouTube that "this is a concern that is shared at the highest (and I mean highest) levels of the WH." https://t.co/ygBLdqFIuX
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Those are just a few minor examples of a trend that accelerated over the past decade: Western governments creating, funding or coordinating with powerful outside groups to clamp down on (mostly right-wing) dissent. Just look at the State Department's "Global Engagement Center." https://t.co/ea8PHzxanq
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Between 2020 and 2021, two State Department-backed entities—the Global Engagement Center (GEC) and the National Endowment for Democracy—funneled $665,000 to the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a British nonprofit which creates secretive blacklists of conservative media. https://t.co/ApmALKOYPr
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
GDI's blacklists were stealthily fed to advertising companies to financially cripple targeted news outlets. The top 10 outlets on its "disinformation" list are all conservative. GDI's CEO openly boasted that this had "a significant impact on" the outlets' "advertising revenue." https://t.co/k37XXgyPVF
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The GEC was created to combat FOREIGN propaganda aimed at undermining US security. But instead, it was turned inwards on our own citizens. We've seen this stuff happen across our intelligence and security agencies. I fought to shutter the GEC—for good. https://t.co/Zfmi7fDlIU
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
During the 2020 election—under President Trump's first term—the Department of Homeland Security's CISA formed a "counter-disinformation" coalition with powerful outside censorship groups. Here's what that network did during that election cycle alone, per @FFO_Freedom's analysis: https://t.co/XbeAfYln84
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
This system operates across the borders of the West—giving it yet another way around our Constitution. When their censorship machine faced legal challenges in the US, Biden officials and their nonprofit allies began using foreign censorship laws to crack down on American speech. https://t.co/pvZ3tMoSAt
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
At least 23 US-funded NGOs, nonprofits and "disinformation" groups have received nearly $15.5 million of your tax dollars to help enforce the EU's draconian new Digital Services Act—which levies hefty fines on tech platforms (including US platforms) for allowing "disinformation." https://t.co/mCcBfjMSiH
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
In other words: Using these groups, our government was helping European bureaucrats bully US tech companies into censoring American speech. That includes groups like NewsGuard—whose advisory board has boasted the former heads of the CIA and NSA, DHS, and the GEC, respectively. https://t.co/WQekCCwPVl
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
To sum things up: American and European bureaucrats, along with their friends in the NGOs and the tech companies, have been working together to wage a war of censorship and suppression against their own citizens across the West.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
I fought this censorship-industrial complex as Attorney General of Missouri, where I sued the Biden admin for pressuring tech platforms into censoring conservatives—and took them to the Supreme Court. Now it's time to work with President Trump to end this once and for all. https://t.co/hUPYmxdyX2
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Thankfully, President Trump is dismantling the government arm of this regime. The State Department's Global Engagement Center has been shut down. Funding streams for "disinformation" groups have been cut. But many of the "private" censorship NGOs are still operating as we speak. https://t.co/jX9d5Nkri2
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The stories I've shared in this thread are just the tip of the iceberg. Stay tuned. This fight is just getting started.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
We’re going to continue this NGO investigation. I discussed today with @dbongino: https://t.co/XY7a1DdVm2
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The Tesla attacks are getting worse. Arson. Molotov cocktails. Bouts of gunfire. This isn't new. The Left has used violence as a political tool for decades. Only one thing can stop this. In the words of Pat Buchanan: "Force, rooted in justice, and backed by moral courage." 🧵
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Since January 6, 2021, we've been fed round-the-clock hysteria about "domestic terrorism" from the Right. This is what the kids like to call "gaslighting." The truth is, since the 1960s, political violence has overwhelmingly been a product of the Left.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Make no mistake: This isn't just a few fringe radicals. Sure, they're the ones who are out there tossing Molotovs in the streets. But the entire institutional Left—from the media to the education system to the Democratic Party itself—colludes to encourage, justify and excuse it.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
In 1971, the Weather Underground—a far-left terrorist group—actually bombed the Capitol building, planting an explosive device in a ground-floor bathroom. In 1983, another left-wing militant group called the Armed Resistance Unit detonated a bomb outside the Senate chamber. https://t.co/ZG4lh7pXxR
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
In 18 months from 1971-72, we had 2500 domestic bombings—more than 5 a day. But most Americans don't remember this. Why? Because the Left controls the schools, the press, the whole system of organized culture—so it's been erased from our popular memory. https://t.co/8oadJQxh9L https://t.co/dxFcbeD1WB
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
We've seen the same thing with the Tesla attacks today. Most respectable voices on the Left won't go so far as to outright ENDORSE the violence, of course—but they'll distract, equivocate, and soft-peddle it. Here's a textbook example of how that works: https://t.co/BA4RE9UCaq
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Oh, they'll walk right up to the line—but always with just enough plausible deniability. As deranged leftists open fire on Tesla dealerships, they'll post articles titled "Kill Tesla" with pictures of burning cars, and then claim that they were just talking about a boycott. https://t.co/BslJcnw30U
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
But this is how the playbook always works. From the BLM riots, to the mob harassment of Supreme Court justices, to assassination attempts against Brett Kavanaugh and Donald Trump, the violent radical arm of the Left always gets the wink-and-a-nod from the "respectable" liberals.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
In a healthy political system, this lawlessness would be equally unacceptable to both sides. It would be good for America to have a Democratic Party that didn't encourage, excuse, and make common cause with violent leftists—let alone actively try to bail BLM rioters out of jail. https://t.co/dsVQGgAAtu
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
But that's not what we have. So we must respond to this new era of political violence with the full force of the law. The decades-long practice of coddling leftist terrorists has been a disaster for our country. It taught the Left that these tactics work. That has to end.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The American Bar Association sat on the sidelines as our legal system was weaponized against normal Americans. Now, they launch a pressure campaign against President Trump on day one. We’ve had enough. It’s time to liberate our legal system from this failed institution. 🧵 https://t.co/C2XwX2Cb8w
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
On Feb. 10 and Mar. 3, the ABA sent two highly partisan statements parroting leftist talking points and saying "Americans expect better." https://t.co/tHbJ1X1Sce
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Americans certainly expected better than the Biden Administration's unprecedented attempt to throw their political opponents in jail (Banana republic stuff) and made that known on November 5th.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The ABA's partisanship is of concern because it traditionally plays a large role in judicial selection in the United States, credentialing judge candidates in an increasingly partisan way. https://t.co/b4wWNH6RRn
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
How many statements did the ABA put out against Biden's lawfare? Biden's refusal to accept the Supreme Court's student loan ruling? The Democrats' assault on the Supreme Court? Zero. https://t.co/xPC8NB8496
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Beyond that, the ABA went woke, mandating DEI courses in law schools and pushing cultural Marxism on the legal profession. https://t.co/dwuqeixSm6
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
And to cap it all off, who is funding the ABA you might ask? That's right, USAID. You really can't make this stuff up. https://t.co/GDoMSgD5xm
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
That is why I, along with @BasedMikeLee, @TedCruz. @HawleyMO, @MarshaBlackburn, and @BernieMoreno, are taking the radical step to break our judicial selection process free from ABA control. We are excited to work with the Trump Administration & @PamBondi to put great Trump judges on our nation's courts. END
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Today Chuck Schumer spoke at a pro Israel rally Later today Chuck Schumer blocked support for Israel The Democrats are total hypocrites on this issue.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
🚨 BREAKING: The United States Supreme Court has granted cert in Missouri v. Biden -- the nation's highest court will hear the most important free speech case in American history. I'm proud to have filed this case when I was AG, and will always defend free speech. https://t.co/2MOfLXH8u0