It's not often that a radical, self-described democratic socialist sitting member of Congress would agree with anyone on the Republican side of the political aisle, but Sen. Bernie Sanders just broke the mold yesterday with an admission about his thoughts on Twitter banning former President Donald Trump from its platform earlier this year.
According to Newsmax, during an interview with a New York Times podcast called "The Ezra Klein Show," Sanders expressed concerns over Twitter's harsh reaction to banning a sitting president of the United States, which was followed by a number of other bans by other social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and more.
Sanders qualified his admission by calling Trump every name in the book, literally.
"Look, you have a former president in Trump who is a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe, a pathological liar, an authoritarian, somebody who doesn't believe in the rule of law," Sanders said as he explained his view.
"This is a bad news guy. But if you're asking me, do I feel particularly comfortable that the president, the then-president of the United States could not express his views on Twitter? I don't feel comfortable about it," the Vermont senator added.
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Sanders is wise to take that position, as there could certainly come a day when he or members of his party are banned on social media or otherwise unfairly censored due to their personal opinions. Sure, it's not likely since Big Tech is a left-leaning, anti-Republican machine, but First Amendment rights apply to both sides of the aisle.
While Trump spent the entirety of his presidency using Twitter as his primary messaging tool and became really good at using the platform for maximum effectiveness, the president is said to now enjoy his time away from Twitter, instead focusing on grabbing headlines through his increasing number of press releases.
In a Newsmax TV interview Monday, the president indicated that he's a big fan of the press release method of getting his message out, saying "everybody's waiting, and I think I'm getting better and more coverage with that than I did with tweeting. I like this better than Twitter. Actually, they did us a favor. This is better."
That being said, it doesn't sound like the president is completely done with social media, as bombshell reports emerged this week from Jason Miller, his top adviser, that the president is set to launch his own social media platform within a matter of two to three months.
Miller predicted that Trump's network will be the "hottest ticket in social media," adding that it will "completely redefine the game."
Twitter, Facebook and all of the rest better take notice, because if Trump does launch his own platform in the coming months, traffic on the existing Big Tech platforms will drop, significantly as the former president's tens of millions of supporters flock to sign up for his new site.