Louisiana AG rebukes Biden on censorship and transgenderism hardball tactics

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry is taking aim at Big Tech censorship and Biden administration efforts to force its transgenderism agenda on school districts. 

"The government colluded with and encouraged the Big Tech platforms to be able to censor information that was vitally necessary to the American people during the pandemic," Landry alleged on the John Solomon Reports podcast. 

Landry, in collaboration with Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, filed a lawsuit in May accusing the Biden administration of coercing private companies to censor speech. 

Big Tech companies like Google or Facebook "say we're a private company, we can censor anything we want, we get a right to regulate what's on our platform," Landry explained. "But if the government is involved in doing that, well, then [such private platforms] become a government actor. And that's what that suit's about." 

Last month, a federal judge in Louisiana granted discovery in the case, allowing the plaintiffs to subpoena information from Big Tech companies and the Biden administration. 

Landry and Schmitt served subpoenas to senior Biden administration officials, including Chief Medical Advisor to the President Dr. Anthony Fauci, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and would-be director of the Department of Homeland Security's now-defunct Disinformation Governance Board Nina Jankowicz, among others. 

In addition, subpoenas were served to several prominent tech companies, including Twitter, Meta, Youtube, Instagram, and LinkedIn. 

"This is about the censoring of information," Landry said. "Think about the amount of people who received the vaccine based upon ... the belief that they could not contract the virus if they were vaccinated." 

Landry also deplored Biden administration efforts to impose its trangenderism agenda on public schools. 

As part of its proposed changes to Title IX, the administration threatened to withhold federal funding for free lunches from schools that prevented students from using the bathroom of their chosen gender or competing in sports programs corresponding with their gender identity. 

"Is this where we are in the country where we're willing to starve kids to force boys into little girls' ... bathrooms?" asked Landry.

"Those in states and school boards who don't subscribe to this wokeism," he said, "basically they're going to pull the nutritional program from 'em? I mean, really? It's either starve or do it our way? I mean, what else would they would they use food as a weapon for?" 

Landry also scolded liberal prosecutors who "have a complete disregard for the rule of law" for not doing enough to curb rising crime.

New Orleans, for example, "just continues to double down on on the liberal agenda," Landry said. "As they do, more and more people are hurt."

Despite all these challenges, Landry sees a hopeful sign in the legal counteroffensive Republican attorneys general have mounted against perceived BIden overrerach on a range of issues, including abortion laws, transgender issues, vaccine mandates and the border crisis.

"It is from the perch of the attorney generals that we get to push back on the growth of the centralized government, which is what many of our founders had feared," he said. "It's extremely exciting and thrilling to be able to see the ability to move and to shape the country back towards federalism where there is a respect for the people and respect for state sovereignty.”

You can listen to the full interview on John Solomon Reports.