Trump Administration Changes Tone on Free Speech

“I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America. Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents. Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else, and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk. And Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person. He had very bad ratings and they should have fired him a long time ago. So you can call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.” “We have to ask ourselves the questions, as leaders, are we willing to defend people even if we disagree with what they say? If you’re not willing to do that, I don’t think you’re fit to lead Europe or the United States. There is a new sheriff in town, and under Donald Trump’s leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square, agree or disagree. So when you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out, and hell, call their employer.” “I want you to think for a minute about the decades of abuse that has been heaped upon the good people of this nation. A political system that punishes hard-working citizens, oppresses them at every turn, takes away their right to free speech, the right to political expression, the right to fundamental safety in their own country. To all of the domestic terrorists in this country spreading this evil hate, the power of law enforcement under President Trump’s leadership will be used to find you, we’ll use to take away your money, take away your power. And if you’ve broken the law, to take away your freedom.” “Under what circumstances will you prosecute journalists for what they write?” “I believe in the freedom of speech. Only if anyone commits a crime. We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech, anything — and that’s across the aisle. It’s not free speech. when you come out and you say, it’s OK what happened to Charlie — we’re firing people. We’re seeing people online who are posting hate speech. They should be shut down.”