Bernie Sanders targets Facebook and Google on Kavanaugh

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is taking a shot at Facebook and Google as well as the GOP in a new video about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

{mosads}In the video posted on Sanders’ Twitter account, his senior advisor, Ari Rabin-Havt, criticized Republicans as being hypocritical in their arguments that Google and Facebook are biased against conservatives.

Rabin-Havt pointed to Facebook vice president of public policy Joel Kaplan’s support of Kavanaugh’s nomination and Google’s donations to the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization that has been instrumental in picking conservative Supreme Court Justices, in making the argument that Google and Facebook are not biased toward the left.

Kavanaugh and fellow-Trump Supreme Court appointee Neil Gorsuch were both on the list of the Federalist Society’s potential nominees that President Trump picked from.

Google is among the society’s top class of donors who have contributed $100,000 or more to the organization.

Google gives money to liberal organizations as well, and like other tech companies tries to distribute its political donations equally along party lines.

Rabin-Havt noted in the video that Kaplan, who is personal friends with Kavanaugh from their time in the Bush White House together, sat behind the nominee during the congressional hearing on Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault allegation.

The Sanders advisor also pointed out that after Kavanaugh’s confirmation Saturday, Kaplan held a small gathering at his home in to celebrate the event.

Facebook has stressed that it does not have rules for what its staff does in their private life outside of work.

Rabin-Havt argued that these instances show that Facebook and Google tacitly support Kavanaugh and the GOP at large. He contended that this undermines Republican claims that technology companies are biased against conservatives.

Prominent Republicans including House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and President Trump have attacked Facebook, Twitter and Google for being alleged biased against conservatives. Trump has said that he would like the companies to be fairer and McCarthy has argued for more transparency in their judgments of how they handle different types of political content. 

Democrats and the companies themselves have argued that arguments of bias are unfounded.

Sanders has a history of going after major corporations, usually on the grounds of how they treat their employees.

He recently attacked Amazon over how it pays its workers, saying that the e-commerce site often leaves it employees with no choice but to seek government assistance because of how little it pays them.

The company said it pays its workers fairly but decided that it would raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour.