mrs. blackburn: mr. psident. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. i think everyone has been watching a lot of news lately, and i will tell you i have talked to some tennesseans this weekend who feel like that they can tell that the journalists working at our mainstream media outlets are getting frustrated by how much pressure we're putting on big tech companies like facebook, twitter, and gole. but, you know, we are putting pressure on them. it's important for them to be in their lanes. it's important if they are going to be news sources if they do -- that they do something like hiring a new director. and i think they've fallen into the same trap that a lot of people fall into when a story dominates the headlines for a while and then it doesn't resolve itself quickly. you know, they get pretty sick of hearing about it. they saw the initial reports of censorship, bias and antitrust concerns. they didn't feel that personal sense of outrage about what was happening and either checked out of the conversation or let th

mr. chairman. >> okay. >> senator blackburn. >> thank you, mr. chairman, mr. mccabe, thank you for being with us today listening to you just answering senator josh hawley's question, it reminded me that you are spending a lot of your time on cnn these days and of course, this is not a debate on cnn, this is a hearing of the senate judiciary committee. and i have to say when did you go to cnn? >> i'm sorry, was that a question of when i -- >> i'll answer for you, was it in august, was it in 2000 19? i think that may be right. i think you are pretty lucky. >> i think it might be. i don't remember the exact date. that sounds about right. >> i think you are lucky to have landed a job pretty much anywhere after having been fired from the fbi and i think the i.g. publicly floging you in his report and the a.g.spay fired you a month later. pretty sad demise of your career in public service and you were set to retire at the tender young age of 49, isn't that correct? >> no ma'am, that is not correct. >> what is correct? >> fbi agents become eligible to retire when the

blackburn: i think mr.y was more prepared today, as you remember, at the commerce committee hearing, he kind of resembled tom hanks in the movie "castaway." he was more prepared today. but i thought there was an evasiveness from each of them on taking response ability for the -- r- response esponsibility for the way their algorithms subjectively apply section 230 and the definition within that law to frame objectionable content. as you heard mr. zuckerberg say today, if there needed to be more specificity and that, which is exactly -- specificity in , which is exactly what we are doing in my online viewpoint diversity act. we are going to clarify the utilizations for liability protection and preserve it for new market interests and smaller searches, like duck and parler, in the social media space. , emily,e new entrants and be more specific in the language of objectionable content and a reasonable standard that will have an application through the legislation. also, quite a bit of discussion today over who

mr. chairman. >> okay. senator blackburn. >> mr. mccabe, thank you for being with us today listening to you just answering senator hawley's question, it reminded me that you are spending a lot of your time on cnn these days and of course this is not a debate on cnn. this is a hearing of the senate judiciary committee. i have to say, when did you go to cnn? >> i'm sorry, was that a question of when i -- >> i'll answer it for you. was it in august? was it in 2019? i think that may be right. i think you're pretty lucky to have landed -- >> i don't remember the exact dates. i don't remember the exact dates, senator, but that sounds right. >> yeah, i think you're pretty lucky to have landed a job pretty much anywhere after having been fired from the fbi and i think that the ig publicly flogging you in his report and the ag fired you a month later and that was a pretty sad demise, i guess, of your career in public service. and you were set to retire at the tender young age of 49, isn't that correct? >> no, ma'am. >> okay. >> that's not co

mr. chairman. >> senator blackburn, thank you. the bill you were discussing cleared on the hotline just yesterday or today. so progress in that regard, as well. i think senator brown is next, and then that may be, other than my ability to wrap up, the concluding questioning. senator brown? >> thank you, senator moran and ranking member tester. i appreciate you calling this hearing. i have some important questions i would like to ask the department. it's too bad they declined to attend. it seems a little bit too much par for the course. mr. schwab, i appreciate what you said about caregivers being in the room. i had not thought that the way through the way you said it. my first question, thanks for your testimony, expanding the caregiver support program. it's been a committee priority since really for a decade. during roundtable discussions and meetings throughout ohio, i do a number of round tables with veterans. my staff does more than what i do. wives and children caring for 18 family members, know that this kind of help is imme

. >> senator blackburn you are recognized. >> thank you mr. chairman and i want to thank you for coming here voluntarily. we up reshape that. they are undoubtedly benefits to using your platforms and is everyone mentioned today there are also some concerns which are also serious. free speech politics religion and i chuckled as i sat here listening to you all it reminds me that you all are kind of in control of what people are going to hear, what they are going to see and therefore you have the ability to dictate what is coming in and what information is coming in. i think it's important to realize you were set up as an information source not as a news media so therefore censoring things that you all think of singly may be something that's not unseemly to other parts of the country but let me ask each of you do any of you have content moderators who are conservative? mr. dorsey first, yes or no. >> we don't ask political ideology. >> that mr. zuckerberg? >> senator we don't ask for their ideology. they are at $35 in cities and places all across

mr. chair man. >> thank you, senator blackburn. let's hear for shot clocks and i associate myself with senator blackburn's remarks. getting back to human error it seems i didn't have my microphone on when i entered a letter into the record so let the record reflect that during my exchange with mr. fountain and immediately after my exchange i asked unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter to michael from me and unanimous consent was granted so that letter will be entered into the record and at that point in the record. let's conclude here, mr. jeffries you said in your testimony something i think i agree with and i want to emphasize. page three you said policymakers should provide passenger railroads with the dedicated funding they need to operate safely and effectively to pay for expanded capacity when required. let me expand on that. i want you to have, i want the freight to have all the capacity they need. and to that extent we've had some build grants. do policymakers have everything in place to give the freight all t

senator blackburn: one of the things that i thought was very interesting with mr.e world leadersay have access to this platform. theas never censored ayatollah for shouting death to america or has he censored xi utin, but he has censored donald trump repeatedly. now, he can dispute what he wants to and have an opinion about the elections and how the elections played out, or if there was fraud in the elections, with some of the way the ballots were mailed out, harvested. he can have an opinion, but you know what? people are going to express that opinion. i say regularly. i may not agree with you, but i'm going to protect your right to be able to express your opinion. and this is called free speech. so, they kind of jump the shark a few times, if you will, when they rush to take down something. -- thisned this and in the hearing today. i put something about the trump account ability project, that to be ought not blacklisted because they worked with the trump administration. or during the trump administration. that tweet was flagged. and it said nothing about the elec

blackburn. >> thank you mr. chairman. >> last but not least. >> i appreciate that. and even though my colleague from new jersey went twice this time, i am going to begin -- >> these are senate minutes. >> yes. i will agree with my colleagues who talked about the impact on children. the distribution of information that damages womenlk and childrn that leads to violence against women and children, human trafficking, the utilization of these platforms about pedophiles -- this is something that we are going to continue to work on with other members of the house. we passed legislation to put more tools in the hands of local law enforcement to fight this, but you all at these social media platforms are going to have to do your part to work with us on this to protect our children. i will also say that we are keeping an eye and with each of you yesterday i talked about your financial components where there for mr. dorsey and libra with mr. zuckerberg and the application of these components to your sites. we are talking about 2020 elections but we are also looking ahead at h

mrs. blackburn: mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. e presiding officer: the clerk will call theoll. quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: mr. shelby: mr. president, i ask unimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. shelby: what's t regular order? i ask unanimous consent now that the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection the clerk will report the motion to invoke clore. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the sate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of taylor b. mcneel of mississippi to be uned statesistrict judge for the southern district of missisppi, sned by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senat that date on the nomination of taylor b. mcneel of mississippi to be united states district judge for the southern district of mississippi shall

mrs. blackburn: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes, we are. mrs. blackburn: i ask that we dispense with the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam president. we may be back to work carrying out what should be the normal business of the senate, but from what i have observed, the american people really don't see this as just another day. they are a little bit anxious. and i really think that it is because over the past week, they have witnessed some of the most divisive news cycles in recent memory. allegations of voter fraud are running rampant. these have been unanswered and ignored by most media outlets. liberal operatives have sent up test balloons on the creation of official enemies list. now, think about that. we have them making enemies' lists, wanting to execute a campaign of personal destruction against people with whom they disagree. what does that say about treasuring free speech? and the most popular social media platforms, oh, madam president, the social media platforms have honestly just o

mrs. blackburn: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: are we currently in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mrs. blackburn: we are not. thank you, madam president. when most americans think of the sacrifices that our veterans made in the name of defending freedom, they think of those brave men and women running toward the danger, and we are grateful that in their hearts they have that desire. but as anyone who knows or has worked with veterans know they also make sacrifices that really never bubble to the service or come to our attention. not only do they sacrifice for their own safety, they give up their personal independence, the comforts of home, their relationship with friends and family, their spouses and their children. think about what an extraordinary decision they've made that the safety and security of their fellow countrymen is worth more than losing those precious days. they have made that choice. they put that service and that sacrifice in front of their desires, in front of the desires of their fam