Staff Report

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana’s incoming Attorney General, Todd Rokita, has issued a statement explaining his tweet on Friday, Jan. 8, in which he supported President Trump following the deadly insurrection at the Capitol.

Rokita’s tweet can be seen above.

Todd Rokita

The Republican, who is a former Congressman, then issued a statement saying it was an experiment in connection with Trump being banned by Twitter hours earlier.

Twitter permanently banned Trump’s account, stating that his tweets incited the violence and riots seen in the Capitol last week.

“As most know, I have been a supporter of the President and his policies. Yet also like most, I am not an absolute supporter of any human being,” read part of Rokita’s statement.

“To be clear, I also condemn the Capitol violence in the same way and terms that I have condemned the violence last summer. As Lincoln said in his Lyceum Address, ‘violence only begets violence.’ I do, however, strongly believe in protecting speech and the free exercise of thought without limitations by the Government—or tech monopolies,” he said.

Soon after Twitter’s ban on the President, Rokita said he began receiving messages from Trump supporters whose accounts were also banned, inexplicably.

“Later in the evening Friday, we learned that tech giants Apple and Google were threatening to ban the newest free speech, conservative-leaning platform, Parler. Conservatives have flocked to Parler to freely exercise their own speech. Now, big tech threatens to stifle and silence them,” he said.

“I tweeted my support for the President and waited to see if a ban would occur on my own account. Although a ban on my account has not yet occurred as many others have experienced, we confront an important question at this time in our nation about the extent to which we allow tech companies to control speech. Private companies can control speech on their property, just as private citizens can. However, when those private companies are effectively monopolies, controlling the entire dialogue of a nation, and using that control to suppress certain speech, we are compelled as a people and as elected officials, through the democratic process, to uphold constitutional protections on free speech,” he said.

Rokita said he will be further investigating and taking action, wherever possible, to limit the ability of tech companies to infringe on the free market of thought for citizens.