Ted Cruz: You can blame the Trump administration for not reining in Big Tech censorship

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) told BlazeTV host Steven Crowder on Thursday that some of the blame for Republicans' failure to rein in Big Tech censorship over the past four years should be directed toward members of the Trump administration.

Cruz — who has been one of the leading voices in Congress raising the alarm about the brazen censorship practices of Big Tech monopolies such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube — explained to Crowder that addressing the issue through the legislative branch is nothing short of a pipe dream.

"In Congress, all of the Democrats are opposed to doing anything about Big Tech, they want them to use their monopoly power to silence and destroy their enemies," Cruz said. "So you've got half the Congress that is fully in bed with Big Tech. You then have half the Republicans that are just scared of doing much of anything.

"When you've got all the Democrats and half the Republicans on the other side [against legislation], you don't have the votes to move something through Congress," he continued. "So I've proposed all sorts of things, they ain't going to move because the votes aren't there.

"The only hope was the executive branch," Cruz argued.

But according to the Texas senator, the executive branch under Trump, though perhaps willing, was ultimately unable to generate substantive reform.

"Look, Trump understood that Big Tech was a problem, he wanted to do something about it. The rest of his administration couldn't actually effectively execute," Cruz said. "I could never get the people in the administration executing the policy to get serious about stopping censorship."

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Cruz said despite countless meetings he held with senior members of the Trump administration, during which he outlined the steps they should take, the issue was never advanced.

Nevertheless, he explained, "that's the only way we're going to get it done, is with an executive who is ready to act and knows how to act."

Crowder responded by pointing out that if half of the Republicans in Congress are not willing to go to work on the issue, then those lawmakers should be identified and voted out of office.

Both characterized the issue of Big Tech censorship as one of the most important currently facing the country and both agreed, now that the Democratic Party has assumed power, it will be "open season" on conservatives or any dissenting voices, for that matter.