On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) responded to a question on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s (D) 2022 remarks that there isn’t a guarantee of free speech for “misinformation or hate speech,” by stating that “We believe in free speech. It’s got to be robust. You have to accept views you don’t like, from both sides.” And Republicans appear to be taking Charlie Kirk’s “tragic death and deciding that they want to censor speech, thought, opinion, in violation of the First Amendment, of people they don’t like, and that ain’t American.”
Host Kaitlan Collins said, “[W]hat we heard from the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, on free speech in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, something she faced a ton of criticism for, not just from free speech advocates, but from a lot of conservatives who said that what she was saying was exactly against what they believe. I want you to listen, though, to what Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz had to say, in 2022, on the same issue.”
She then played video of Walz saying, “I think we need to push back on this. There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy. Tell the truth,” and then video of Bondi saying, “There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech. And there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie” before asking, “How is what the Attorney General said there different than what we heard from Gov. Walz?”
Kaine responded, “So, I never heard that quote before. But let me tell you, I’m a Virginian, Virginia framers helped write the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We believe in free speech. It’s got to be robust. You have to accept views you don’t like, from both sides. And Donald Trump’s decision that he wants to go after people critical of him, look, I lived in a military dictatorship in Honduras when I was working with Jesuit missionaries there in 1980 and ’81. I don’t want the U.S. to fall back into the authoritarian, dictatorial thing where you suppress speech you don’t like and elevate speech you do like. We need to tolerate free [speech]. I thought Charlie Kirk was a free speech guy. I never met him. I don’t think I would have recognized him on the street before the horrible, horrible and tragic assassination last week. But I thought he was a free speech guy. But the Republicans seem to be taking his tragic death and deciding that they want to censor speech, thought, opinion, in violation of the First Amendment, of people they don’t like, and that ain’t American.”
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