MSNBC’s Hayes on Nunes’s Twitter lawsuit: US ‘almost literally founded on mocking political leaders’

MSNBC host Chris Hayes mocked Rep. Devin Nunes’s lawsuit against Twitter and some of its users for more than $250 million, saying the “the country is almost literally founded on mocking political leaders.”

The “All-In with Chris Hayes” host’s perspective came during a guest spot on CBS’s “Late Night with Stephen Colbert” after the comedian asked if everyone could sue Twitter given the animus between users that often occurs on the social media platform.

“Every person I know is like, ‘Look at my mentions, dude.’ Welcome to Twitter. People make fun of you,” Hayes said.

{mosads}”At one level, it’s hilarious and mockable,” he continued. “On another level, it’s profoundly gross in the sense that it’s not hyperbole by too much to say the country is almost literally founded on mocking political leaders.”

“I mean, honestly, that’s one of the core values of the American Revolution is mocking King George, and then, once they get their own democratic republic, mocking people through pamphlet,” Hayes continued.

“And writing in the Constitution that that’s allowed,” Colbert added.

“To use the courts as a weapon to discourage what is obviously protected speech against him is gross,” Hayes added.

On Monday, Nunes sued Twitter, alleging that the company was responsible for “facilitating defamation on its platform” by “ignoring lawful complaints about offensive content and by allowing that content to remain accessible to the public” despite what he argued were violations of its terms of service and rules.

The lawsuit also claims Twitter censored conservative members of the social media giant by “shadow-banning” them, which Nunes argues may have impacted the results of the 2018 midterm elections, when Democrats took back the House. 

Others named in Nunes’s lawsuit include GOP operative Liz Mair and her firm Mair Strategies, along with two parody accounts that mocked the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, “Devin Nunes’ Mom” (@DevinNunesMom) and “Devin Nunes’ cow” (@DevinCow).