Devin Nunes On Life After Congress, Elon Musk, And Big Tech Censorship

Ashe SchowMay 17, 2022

Former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) spent nearly 20 years in Congress before leaving to become the CEO of former President Donald Trump’s media company, Trump Media and Technology Group, which launched the Truth Social platform earlier this year.

In an interview with The Daily Wire, Nunes reflected on his new role with Truth Social and what Elon Musk’s potential purchase of Twitter means for the platform

“We’re all for it,” Nunes said of Musk’s potential acquisition, adding that Truth Social’s purpose is “to give the American people their voice back and open the Internet back up to the world.”

“Having somebody like Elon Musk step up to the plate and taken on these tech tyrants is what we’re encouraging,” the former congressman added.

He went on to say that Truth Social is intended to be a true social networking platform, more like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, rather than Twitter, which he called “a global press release wire over the internet.”

“That’s not what we’re trying to be,” he said.

Nunes also called out numerous “fake news” stories surrounding Truth Social, including what was considered a rocky rollout that was actually a soft launch akin to beta testing. The waitlist that hundreds of thousands saw after signing up for the platform was intended to ensure the platform could handle everyone who wanted to sign up. The determination that it could handle that many users was made in late April, when the platform officially went live and the waitlist disappeared. Trump made an announcement about the platform opening fully during his April 23 rally in Ohio.

As for leaving Congress, Nunes noted how numerous media outlets speculated that he faced a tough re-election campaign when he announced his retirement from Congress in December 2021. CNN, for example, reported at the time that Nunes “faced the threat of a more-Democratic district through redistricting ahead of next year’s midterms,” insinuating the congressman may be leaving before he loses his re-election.

Nunes also called this “fake news,” explaining that he jokes that he had “the best job on the planet [leading the House Intelligence Committee] before Donald Trump was elected.”

“Hardly ever were we out in the public. You would only hear from us when there was a terrorist attack or some international emergency,” Nunes told The Daily Wire. “And I went from that to the worst job when the entire committee was politicized for political purposes by the Left.”

Nunes was referring to the high-profile nature of the committee as Democrats investigated whether Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election.

But Nunes said he really decided to leave Congress because of Big Tech censorship, which he wrote about in his 2020 book, “Countdown to Socialism,” and spent the next year promoting around the country.

“If we don’t have basic communications in this country, we’re going to hit a very dark place,” Nunes said. “So when Donald Trump called me to take this job, I mean, I can’t run around and say this is the most important issue at the highest level, to not have a communications architecture for the American people, and then get the opportunity to go out and do it and not do it.”

Finally, Nunes spoke about special counsel John Durham, who is investigating those behind the Russia-collusion narrative. Nunes praised Durham for having a reputation as “a serious investigator bringing real changes,” noting that he had confidence in Durham early on specifically because there were no leaks, unlike special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, which saw regular leaks to various news agencies that ended up being untrue and served only to harm the Trump administration.

“The question is, can the dirty cops, the [Hillary] Clinton campaign, people at the [Democratic National Committee], can they escape like rats off of a ship?” Nunes asked. “And [are] these other characters going to be indicted, or are they willing to spend time in jail to cover up for others? We’ll see.”