Sheldon Whitehouse: Elon Musk Has 'Curated Armada' Of X Users Who Attack Political Targets

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At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) slammed Elon Musk over online attacks on federal judges and their families.  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Senator Whitehouse.

00:02Thanks very much.

00:02Thanks, you all, for being here.

00:04The first thing I'd like to do is put into the record

00:09a partial list that my office pulled together

00:12of nationwide injunctions against the Biden

00:16administration that my Republican colleagues

00:19celebrated and rejoiced in.

00:22So this is a bit of a what side are you on,

00:26who's in power right now type of debate we're having.

00:31The second thing that I'd like to do

00:32is to point out that the discomfort to fury,

00:43that's kind of the general range,

00:45about decisions against the Trump administration

00:49may actually have a lot to do with the unprecedented

00:52lawlessness and lawbreaking of the Trump administration

00:54rather than a weird cabal of judges trying to intrude.

01:00And it rolls into something that's

01:01very important to the court right now,

01:02which is threats to judges and to their families,

01:09which I think there's significant evidence to show

01:13has been orchestrated and is systematized.

01:17It obviously starts at the top with people like Trump

01:22and Musk making threats about impeachment and whipping up.

01:27In the case of Musk, he has curated a whole armada

01:33of characters, to put it nicely, on X who,

01:40when he targets an individual, barrage that individual

01:44with abuse and threats.

01:47The idea that Musk does not know that he has this curated armada

01:53of, let's just say, not entirely all there individuals

01:57who are willing to go and harass and threaten

02:00when he's identified a target seems unlikely,

02:02seems like he knows, seems like it's deliberate.

02:05And in that regard, I'd like to put into the record

02:09a letter that I wrote to Judge Bridar,

02:13who is the new head of the Judicial Security

02:16and Independence Task Force.

02:19For the first time, the judiciaries felt

02:21it has to put together a task force

02:24to deal with the campaign of threats

02:26that begins at the top with Trump and Musk

02:29and then works its way down to where individual judges

02:32are not only critiqued, that's fair game,

02:36but they're threatened.

02:38They're threatened with impeachment to the point

02:39where the Chief Justice has had to stand up and say,

02:42no, no, no.

02:44If you disagree with the decision,

02:46that's an appealable issue, not an impeachable issue.

02:52So I asked that both be put into the record,

02:59both my letter regarding what they have to do.

03:02Here's my concern.

03:03Without objection.

03:04I don't know that the Marshals Service

03:07is actually going to provide the protection

03:13that the judges need.

03:16We had a very good response to the Rhode Island judge

03:19who was subject to these threats.

03:22The court is very impressed and pleased

03:24with what the Marshals Service did in that instance.

03:27But it gets a little bit different

03:29when you start going after,

03:30seems always to be female family members.

03:34When you start going after spouses,

03:36wives and daughters and things like that,

03:39if you go after a judge's daughter

03:41who lives in a different location,

03:44how does the Marshals Service respond

03:46to safety issues related to the daughter

03:49who lives in a different city,

03:50who's not even in the district for the Marshals?

03:52What do you do about that?

03:53And do the Marshals have any authority

03:55to do any investigative work

03:57to see what can be done to understand

04:00the threat posture that these judges are facing

04:02and who's behind it?

04:03And when is it deliberate?

04:04Or are they constrained only to provide protection

04:08but not look into what the threat is?

04:11I think those are really important questions

04:13and I hope that this judicial group

04:15will take a good hard look at that.

04:17And that's what my letter requests.

04:20The last thing I'd suggest is this ain't that easy.

04:25If you are a district judge

04:28and you decide that a rule is unconstitutional,

04:34or a action is unconstitutional,

04:37and that action plays out across multiple states,

04:41that as the law of that case

04:45and as the law on that subject

04:47ought to be applicable in other districts.

04:53And the idea that every time

04:55some action is deemed unconstitutional,

04:58you've got to file it 93 times

05:00to hit every single district

05:02before it can apply.

05:04I mean, I think we get into

05:05some very significant practicality issues

05:08as we mount this little crusade

05:13that runs exactly counter

05:14to where my Republican colleagues were

05:16when the shoe was on the other foot.

05:18Thank you, Senator Whitehouse.

05:19Senator Cruz.

05:21It's long been said that hypocrisy...

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