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Trump allies target Biden picks with Big Tech ties

26 March 2021
Dan Ackermann

Escalating the GOP's push against Big Tech, Trump allies are targeting Biden nominees who worked for — or even advised — Apple, Amazon, Google or Facebook.

Driving the news: The Center for American Restoration, a think tank formed by Trump-era Office of Management and Budget director Russ Vought, wrote a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Republican senators Friday urging them to reject nominees with Big Tech ties.

The big picture: Powerful factions on both the left and right are uniting around a similar goal: Keep tech influence out of the Biden administration.

  • Trump-aligned Republican groups pushing an anti-tech message are motivated by an argument that Big Tech companies have too much power over conservative speech and that antitrust laws should reel them in.
  • In November, 32 progressive groups wrote to the Biden administration urging a rejection of Big Tech influence, arguing that its business practices are harmful to consumers and the economy.

What they're saying: "We urge you and the Senate Republican conference to reject nominees to key antitrust enforcement positions if those nominees have worked as lawyers, lobbyists, or consultants for Big Tech companies like Apple, Amazon, Google or Facebook," the letter shared with Axios reads.

  • Vought's group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, aims to keep pressing on cultural issues Trump rallied his base around, like voter fraud and the power of big tech and social media, Axios' Lachlan Markay previously reported.
  • The letter is signed by more than a dozen other conservative groups, including the Conservative Partnership Institute, the Internet Accountability Project and the Media Research Center.

Between the lines: Candidates the Biden administration is vetting for key antitrust enforcement roles at the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice do not generally have direct ties to Big Tech, so the request is more symbolic than anything.

  • Attacking technology companies is a rare area of alignment for the left and right, but has largely been driven by opposite underlying ideologies.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.