History of 'Cracking down on free speech': Mehdi Hasan explains why Nunes is the perfect person to head Trump’s media company

Rep. Devin Nunes of California has announced that he is resigning from Congress to become the CEO of former President Donald Trump’s new media company, Trump Media & Technology Group. The far-right California Republican, in a December 6 letter, said he will be leaving “at the end of 2021.” MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan weighed in on Nunes’ decision in a scathing commentary, stressing that although Trump has claimed that his new company’s goal is promoting free speech, Nunes has done the exact opposite.

Hasan opened his commentary by noting that Nunes loves to file defamation lawsuits against his critics, even going so far as to file a lawsuit against a fictional “cow” that mocked him on Twitter. That Twitter parody account, Devin Nunes’ Cow, Hasan pointed out, received more traffic than Nunes’ own Twitter account.

Trump Media & Technology Group will include the social media platform Truth Social, which the former president is promoting as a right-wing alternative to Twitter — a platform that shut down Trump’s @realDonaldTrump account following the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol Building.

Hasan told MSNBC viewers, “Just soak this in for a minute: the guy who wanted to crack down on free speech online is going to be the CEO of a free speech company called Truth, run by one of the most dishonest men in history. Trump, of course, loves Nunes, and even gave him a Presidential Medal of Freedom before leaving office last January.”

The progressive MSNBC host described some of Nunes’ anti-free speech activities, including his frivolous lawsuit against CNN — which was thrown out in court — and his lawsuits against Esquire, McClatchy Newspapers and a fictional cow. Hasan noted that Nunes “even tried to sue a congressional colleague, California Democrat Ted Lieu, for allegedly maligning his reputation.”

Hagan commented, “No wonder Donald Trump loves Devin Nunes — he’s another whiny family heir who lucked his way into right-wing politics and who did nothing with that political power except lying, owning libs and trying to intimidate journalists and critics…. Nunes is hardly the first Republican to find paid messaging more rewarding than, you know, governing and legislating and policy making.”

Hasan also noted the irony of the fact that Nunes co-sponsored the Discouraging Frivolous Lawsuits Act of 2017, commenting, “I guess it’s lucky for him that it never passed.”