Twitter has censored the official account of Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), the chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) for referring to Rachel Levine as "a man." Levine, who is the assistant secretary for Health & Human Services (HHS), was recently sworn in as a four-star admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
The tweet, which got the congressman locked out of the account, read that "The title of first female four-star officer gets taken by a man."
The congressman has taken to tweeting from his personal account.
Twitter has suspended my official account for posting a statement of FACT.
— Jim Banks (@Jim_Banks) October 23, 2021
I won’t back down.
I’ll be posting on my personal account for the time being.
Please Retweet this message and follow me -> @Jim_Banks.
Big Tech must be held accountable!
My statement on being censored for tweeting a basic truth and banned from using my official account at @RepJimBanks?? https://t.co/N5MBvJKz6g pic.twitter.com/bwQxhRAUOO
— Jim Banks (@Jim_Banks) October 23, 2021
Levine became the first openly transgender person confirmed by the Senate in March with a vote of 52-48.
During Levine's confirmation hearing in February, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who is also a medical doctor, exposed concerns that Levine would override parental concerns about their minor children undergoing sex changes over gender dysphoria. When asked about such support for hormone blockers and genital mutilation for children, Levine gave a non-answer which in part mentioned that "transgendered medicine is a very complex and nuanced field with robust research and standards of care that have been developed."
As others have pointed out, Rep. Banks is not the only one to tweet that Levine was born a man.
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) October 23, 2021
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Apparently saying Rachel Levine is not a woman is not allowed. https://t.co/aH9vSHuqvQ
— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) October 23, 2021
Oh wow. I knew Silicon Valley was evil, but didn’t think they were dumb enough to pick a fight with @RepJimBanks.
— Terry Schilling ???? (@Schilling1776) October 23, 2021
Game on. #FAFO https://t.co/BM2Pxy3M3x
Terry Schilling, the president of American Principles Project (APP), who has tweeted about Levine, issued the following statement:
“This week, Congressman Jim Banks tweeted something demonstrably and irrefutably true. Rachel Levine is biologically a man. No serious person can dispute this. Nevertheless, Banks was removed from Twitter for making this true statement.
“This should be a wake up call for every American. Our ruling class has moved beyond silencing people for mere politically incorrect opinions. They are now actively censoring speech they know is factually correct in order to bolster a false reality. That the victim in this instance is a prominent Republican leader in Congress makes this latest power grab even more frightening.
“There should be no question now that Big Tech has become far too powerful. They wield their authority with impunity even over our elected officials in order to impose a sweeping speech code on our society that would have shocked George Orwell. The stranglehold which Big Tech censors have on our public square represents without a doubt the greatest contemporary threat to American democracy.
“Republicans: the time for talk is over. You must act now to rein in these Silicon Valley authoritarians by any means necessary. All options — Section 230 reform, antitrust legislation, changes to campaign finance law — should be on the table. And midterm voters will require a clear explanation of what you plan to do if you hope to have any chance of reclaiming the majority in Congress next year.”
A tweet from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-GA) personal account was left up by Twitter. "This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about hateful conduct. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible," the disclaimer reads of a tweet that includes a picture of Levine in uniform and says "A dude who lived the first 50 years of his life as a man isn’t the first female anything. China is laughing at us."
A dude who lived the first 50 years of his life as a man isn’t the first female anything.
— Marjorie Taylor Greene ???? (@mtgreenee) October 20, 2021
China is laughing at us. pic.twitter.com/aevoytoOHf
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