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Elizabeth Warren calls Trump a ‘danger to democracy’ and must be kept ‘off air’

‘I am much happier with Donald Trump off the air, off Facebook,’ says senator for Massachusetts

Gino Spocchia
Thursday 06 May 2021 19:06 BST
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<p>Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren</p>

Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren

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Elizabeth Warren says Donald Trump should face permanent bans from social media because he is a “danger to democracy”.

The Democrat, who is a frequent critic of Facebook, was interviewed by The Washington Post on Thursday following the tech giant’s decision to continue banning the former president on Wednesday, in remarks first reported by The Hill.

Facebook first banned Mr Trump in the aftermath of the insurrection of the US Capitol in January, with crowds fuelled by the former president’s false allegations of election fraud.

Ms Warren said on Thursday that the decision by Facebook’s Oversight Board, which will be reviewed in six months, was the right decision because of Mr Trump’s remarks before and after the insurrection.

“I am much happier with Donald Trump off the air, off Facebook,” said the Massachusetts senator. “I don’t like having to get up every morning and go through what he’s done. I think he poses a lot of risk”.

Ms Warren, asked if the former president was an “ordinary American” following his departure from the White House, told The Post: “He poses much more risk than an ordinary American.”

“Indeed, he is now forcing, evidently, everybody else in the Republican Party to agree to say the lie out loud,” Ms Warren said of Mr Trump’s ongoing bogus allegations of election fraud — six months after US president Joe Biden’s win.

“He spreads misinformation. He is truly a danger to our democracy,” Ms Warren added of Mr Trump.

Around the same time the senator spoke with The Post on Thursday, Twitter suspended an account set up by Mr Trump’s website to send out his statements.

The account, ‘From the Desk of Donald J. Trump’, was in contravention of Twitter’s rules, because it replicated statements from the former president’s own website, according to Politico.

The Trump website — widely derided following its official launch on Tuesday — featured blog posts from the former president accusing “the Fake News Media” of “working in close conjunction with Big Tech” to lie about the election, in the wake of Facebook’s decision.

Twitter first banned Mr Trump in the aftermath of the insurrection of the US Capitol, along with Facebook, and also for lying.

Mr Trump’s office has been approached for comment by The Independent.

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