Nick Pacilio, the former press secretary to Kamala Harris, recently chosen as former Vice President Joe Biden’s running mate, has reportedly secured a communications role at Twitter where he could be part of the decision-making process when censoring tweets by President Donald Trump.
In a recent article, National Review reporter David Harsanyi noted that Nick Pacilio, Kamala Harris’ former press secretary, had been hired to a communications role at Twitter. Pacilio’s hiring was first noticed when he tweeted about the removal of a tweet posted by the official account of President Trump’s re-election campaign.
The original Tweet from @TeamTrump is in violation of the Twitter Rules on COVID-19 misinformation, and we’ve required removal. https://t.co/fDPcEa9hRe
— Nick Pacilio (@NickPacilio) August 5, 2020
Federalist co-founder Sean Davis tweeted that Pacilio was hired to police President Trump’s tweets:
Twitter hired Kamala Harris’s press secretary to decide what the President of the United States is allowed to say on Twitter. https://t.co/mU4uHWAcfT
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) August 6, 2020
Harsanyi notes in his article that Twitter alleges that Pacilio is not involved directly in the decisions to remove tweets from the President and his team, but Pacilio’s tweets about the removal of a tweet by the President’s re-election campaign do seem to imply he at the very least has knowledge of the reasoning for the removal.
Harsanyi questions whether people would have such little issue with the hiring of a conservative to police a Democrats tweets, writing: “But could you imagine what the nightly reaction on CNN and MSNBC would be if Mike Pence’s former spokesperson was seen censoring Joe Biden’s tweets during a presidential election? I have no doubt Democrats would be calling for congressional hearings.”
Harsanyi notes that Sarah Isgur, the former spokeswoman for Jeff Sessions, faced intense scrutiny when hired by CNN with the newsroom, which employs former Obama official Jim Sciutto, feeling “demoralized” by her hiring at the company. Harsanyi notes: “Conservatives, and it’s probably fair to say that Isgur is a pretty moderate one, aren’t welcome in mainstream journalism.”
