In his first statement addressing the growing scandal over his 2018 campaign’s use of a secret “enemies list” to censor critics on Facebook and Twitter, Sen. Angus King has doubled down.
King did not apologize or plead ignorance of the enemies list or its use to censor critics, but he instead appeared to approve of and endorse actions that resulted in many Mainers being banned permanently from the social media platform.
“If somebody’s gonna come after me with a misleading- uh, with misinformation, I’m gonna respond,” King told News center Maine Wednesday morning.
In this instance, King’s response to what he calls “misleading information” was to contact high-level employees at Facebook and Twitter to provide them with a black list of more than 350 social media users.
Angus King responds to @mtaibbi's reporting that he kept an enemies list of critics in 2018.
📹 @newscentermaine pic.twitter.com/8LqyB5YUuW
— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) February 22, 2023
After King’s team sent the list to Facebook and Twitter, many of those accounts were permanently banned from the platforms, including accounts belonging to the Maine Republican Party and former candidates for state office.
It’s unclear at this point with King, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, used the power of his office in order to facilitate the censorship of his critics through Twitter and Facebook. The campaign worker who reportedly provided the blacklist to Twitter was Toby J. McGrath, who now works as a lobbyist for Drummond Woodsum.
The “misleading information” King refers to is a video of comments he made during the 2018 campaign comparing alleged Russian cyber crimes to the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
King also made those comments in an interview with CNN, but after State Sen. Eric Brakey (R-Androscoggin) began promoting the video, King’s campaign decided to start calling the video of King speaking misinformation. The tactic was successful and resulted in many Maine media outlets downplaying coverage of King’s remarks
Sen. Angus King on Russian meddling in the US election: "This is a serious threat, it's one of the most serious attacks on our country since September 11" https://t.co/qXQPIyk9Re
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) February 14, 2018
The senator’s office is using similar tactics to downplay the significance of King’s participation in brazen tech censorship of political critics.
Although King’s spokesperson initially denied that the purpose of the list was to censor critics, King did not repeat that denial this morning. He seemed instead to say that leveraging corporate and political connections in this manner is just another aspect of hard-nosed politics.
King hasn’t said whether he’s running for re-election in 2024. If he is, his comments today suggest he would eagerly embrace tech censorship as a political tool again, though he might find a less willing co-conspirator in Twitter under Elon Musk’s ownership.
Brakey has said he’s considering filing a complaint against King with the Federal Election Commission.