#steinburg

Quick fact check:

“At least 75 million (likely more) Americans agree”: In reality, post-election polls show that most voters--60% in November, 61% in December, and 65% in January--believe the results of the 2020 election are accurate. Less than one-third still believe the “Big Lie,” and the vast majority of those are Republicans.

“Their silencing of free speech”: Steinburg’s post kinda disproves his own claim, no? Freedom of speech is just that, the right to speak. It doesn’t require others to listen to or believe your speech; it doesn’t include the right to preclude others from criticizing your speech; and it doesn’t insulate you from any other (non-governmental) consequences of your speech. Economic boycotts, for example. Or private platforms refusing to give you a free megaphone to broadcast your speech to a worldwide audience.

“Opening up our borders”: Trump’s vanity wall was useless, so stopping its construction doesn’t open up a damn thing.

“Bankrupting our nation fiscally”: When President Obama took office in 2009, the federal deficit was over $1.4 trillion. In Obama’s last year in office, 2016, the deficit was down to $587 billion. Under Trump and a Republican-controlled Senate, the deficit increased every single year; by Trump’s last year in office, 2020, it was at an all-time high of $3.1 trillion, more than double the previous record. Who’s bankrupting our nation, again?

One might hope Steinburg’s Republican colleagues would disapprove of, or at least disagree with, his continued false claims. One would be disappointed.

“WRAL News reached out via email Thursday morning to the other 27 Republicans in the state Senate, seeking to determine how widespread these beliefs may be. None responded beyond a statement from Senate ... leadership. ‘Sen. Steinburg is an elected member of the North Carolina legislature and can and does speak his mind. We are not in the business of policing the speech of other members, who are responsible only to the voters who elected them.’ ...