A visit by U.S. lawmakers to the U.K. to talk about tech ended in chaos this week as the two sides traded barbs like “pig-headed” and “manbaby”.
Nigel Farage, head of the conservative Reform party, shouted down U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin during a heated exchange about free speech, effectively preventing the Democrat from continuing his remarks, four people in the room told POLITICO.
The U.S. lawmaker had just begun remarks on the history of free speech in the U.S. and had turned to the current threats posed by President Donald Trump when Farage interrupted, according to Raskin and the three other people, all Democratic lawmakers.
“We’re not here to talk about Donald Trump,” Farage said, according to Raskin in an interview from London. “[Farage] said that I am a guest here, and I should act like a guest. And I told him that he was a host, and he should act like a host.”
After Farage accused Raskin of being “the most pig-headed person he’d ever met,” the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee clapped back: “This is why we had a revolution against you guys.”
Other Democrats who confirmed the exchange to POLITICO are Reps. Lou Correa (Calif.), Jasmine Crockett (Texas) and Eric Swalwell (Calif.). All called Farage’s eruption ironic, in that it came at the tail end of a hitherto respectful discussion on free speech.
“Farage just looked unhinged and like a giant manbaby,” Swalwell said.
Spokespeople for Farage and House Judiciary Committee Republicans did not respond to requests for comment.
U.S. lawmakers are in the U.K. as part of a congressional delegation led by House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Republicans are using the trip to push back against the country’s new Online Safety Act, which they say violates free speech and unfairly targets U.S. tech companies. The law requires that social media companies check the age of users and block children from accessing pornography and other harmful content, and includes hefty fines for any violations.
The law has also raised free speech concerns in the U.K., where Farage’s Reform UK Party this week threatened to repeal it. That prompted U.K. Labour officials, led by Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, to accuse Farage of being “on the side” of sexual predators.
“Absolutely disgusting,” Farage said on the U.K.’s ITN in response. “It’s completely below the belt.”
Raskin said the outburst was the “explosive reaction of one British politician who obviously didn’t want any challenge to his view that he’s a free speech victim,” a reference to Farage saying he’d been locked out of banking services and threatened online over his political speech.
“We thought there were some very good things in the Online Safety Act, and there might be some problematic things,” Raskin said. “I think the intervention of Democrats who don’t have a dog in that fight was maybe too much for [Farage] to handle, but we did want to make some general points about the freedom of speech.”
Farage’s back-and-forth came toward the end of a meeting set up by Republicans that featured a discussion of free speech issues around the world. The meeting took place following a private tour of parliament, and included representatives from groups like Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal firm behind several conservative legal causes that have made it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Raskin had just begun his presentation on the history of free speech issues in the U.S. and ongoing risks posed by the Trump administration when Farage repeatedly interrupted, Crockett said. She said Raskin’s comments at that point largely focused on the law and were not partisan.
“This manbaby was not feeling it. … He was gonna pigeonhole the conversation into only things that he wanted to discuss, and anything else was gonna be shut down, because that’s what free speech, I guess, looks like to him,” Crockett said.
She laughed: “There was a little bit of drama, and somehow it did not involve me or Swalwell.”
The contentious London meeting comes after the U.S. delegation visited Brussels, where Jordan and Republicans raised concerns about the bloc’s Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act.
GOP lawmakers warned that those laws, aimed at requiring platforms to take more decisive action against harmful content, infringe on the free speech rights of Americans and specifically harm U.S. tech giants.
“The American companies we have been speaking to have laid out the case their legal teams have been battling on many fronts now on that issue of censorship and trying to curtail what they are putting up online,” said Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.), a member on the trip, about the Online Safety Act in an interview Tuesday on the conservative GB News.
“You will see a continued fight step-by-step to make sure this doesn’t creep into America,” he added.
‘Manbaby’ vs. ‘pig-headed’: US meeting with Farage ends in chaos.
Source: Viral Showbiz Pinay
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