Online Safety ‘Expert’ Roasted In Congress For Tweets Threatening Judges
During a House hearing on “extremist” rhetoric, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) grilled one Democrat witness about tweets advocating for violence against Supreme Court Justices.
Leftist Harvard Law School clinical instructor Alejandra Caraballo was one of several witnesses called before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s hearing entitled “The Evolution of Anti-Democratic Extremist Groups and the Ongoing Threat to Democracy,” which was the seventh and final installment of the committee’s hearings on “Confronting White Supremacy.”
Caraballo, who was born male and claims to be a transgender woman, is also an LGBTQ activist.
During the hearing, Mace roasted Caraballo for his rhetoric on Twitter, pointing out that the radical leftist witness had taken part in the exact extremist rhetoric she was supposedly advocating against.
Mace began her questioning by asking the five witnesses if “rhetoric on social media” was “a problem and a threat to our democracy” — to which all five witnesses responded, “yes.”
“Do you believe that rhetoric targeting officials with violence for carrying out their constitutional duties is a threat to democracy?” Mace continued her line of questioning, to which the five witnesses once again responded, “yes.”
The Republican congresswoman then zeroed in on Caraballo, citing a tweet from the left-wing activist on June 25, 2022 that encouraged violence against Supreme Court justices over their Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, which overturned Roe v. Wade.
“The 6 justices who overturned Roe should never know peace again. It is our civic duty to accost them every time they are in public. They are pariahs. Since women don’t have their rights, these justices should never have a peaceful moment in public again,” Caraballo wrote in the tweet.
Reacting to the radical tweet, Mace recounted her own experiences with being accosted.
“I know something about being accosted,” the congresswoman said. “The night of January 5, I was physically accosted on the streets of DC in Navy Yard by a constituent of mine.”
“I fervently blamed rhetoric, rhetoric on social media, rhetoric at public events for being physically accosted. I carry a gun everywhere I go when I am in my district and I’m at home because I know personally that rhetoric has consequences,” Mace added, noting that her address had been doxxed, people have trespassed on her property and she has had to increase her security.
The Republican congresswoman went on to cite another one of Caraballo’s tweets, this time from November 19, 2022, which read: “It’s so clear that Justice Alito is corrupt and SCOTUS as an institution is compromised. This is not a legitimate court issuing decisions. it’s an organ of the far right that solely follows outcome determinative logic rather than any reasoned jurisprudence.”
“So my last question today of Ms. Caraballo, do you stand by these comments, this kind of rhetoric on social media? And do you believe it’s a threat to democracy,” Mace asked.
Caraballo then attempted to try to explain the tweets, appearing to try to argue that they were being taken out of context. Caraballo thanked Mace for “the opportunity to clarify and provide context to my tweets” — while the Republican congresswoman quickly interrupted to say that these were yes or no questions.
“Do you believe your rhetoric is a threat to democracy when you’re calling to accost a branch of government, the Supreme Court?” Mace pressed.
Once again, Caraballo tried to claim that the tweets, which had not been taken out of context and were read in full, were somehow being mischaracterized.
“I don’t believe that’s a correct characterization of my statements,” Caraballo said.
“Did you not tweet that, that you thought that the Supreme Court justices should be accosted?” Mace asked.
“What I’m saying is that is not an accurate characterization of my statements,” Caraballo said.
Caraballo later blocked Mace on Twitter in an apparent reaction to the exchange in Congress.
