Leftists raged Saturday evening after Twitter CEO Elon Musk reinstated former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account despite Trump repeatedly stating that he would not use the platform again.
The announcement from Musk comes after more than 15 million people voted in a non-scientific poll that he posted to his Twitter account asking if Trump should be reinstated.
The results of the poll showed that 51.8% said “yes,” while 48.2% said “no.”
Reinstate former President Trump
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2022
“The people have spoken,” Musk tweeted. “Trump will be reinstated.”
Notable leftist responses included:
- Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL: “For @elonmusk to allow Donald Trump back on Twitter, ostensibly after a brief poll, shows he is not remotely serious about safeguarding the platform from hate, harassment and misinformation. As we’ve said before, Trump used Twitter to foment intolerance, issue threats and incite a violent attack against the US government. Moreover, he has shown no indication that he would do anything different if given the opportunity. When @ADL and other #StopHateforProfit leaders met with Elon Musk on 11/1, he committed to not replatform anyone, regardless of stature, until he installed a transparent, clear process that took into consideration the views of civil society. . @elonmusk ‘s decisions over the last month have been erratic and alarming, but this decision is dangerous and a threat to American democracy. We need to ask — is it time for Twitter to go?”
- Frank Figliuzzi, MSNBC: “The Russian bots have spoken.”
- S.V. Date, HuffPost: “1) Trump was banished from Twitter not because of cancel culture, but because he attempted a coup using Twitter as a tool and THEN CONTINUED RILING UP HIS MOB EVEN AFTER IT FAILED. 2) Getting back on Twitter will remind many people what a dangerous, unhinged president he was.”
- Eric Weinstein: “This is such BS. I’m sorry. But you lost me here. Are all major decisions going to be Twitter polls? Ever faced ‘the voice of the people’ as a mob? Is a mob god? C’mon. You wanted to reinstate him. So you did. Simple.”
- NAACP: “In Elon Musk’s Twittersphere, you can incite an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, which led to the deaths of multiple people, and still be allowed to spew hate speech and violent conspiracies on his platform. Any advertiser still funding Twitter should immediately pause all advertising. If Elon Musk continues to run Twitter like this, using garbage polls that do not represent the American people and the needs of our democracy, God help us all.”
- Scott Dworkin: “. @realDonaldTrump belongs in prison not on Twitter. This is bulls***.”
When news broke back in April that Musk was going to buy Twitter and take the company private, Trump responded by saying he would not return to the platform.
“I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on Truth,” Trump said. “The bottom line is, no, I am not going back to Twitter.”
Trump claimed last month that Twitter could not be “successful without” him and that he would not come back to the platform.
“I am staying on Truth. I like it better, I like the way it works, I like Elon, but I’m staying on Truth,” Trump said late last month. “If I choose to run, I will only use Truth.”