Pennsylvania Democratic lawmaker blasted for claim that lies about 2020 election are not protected speech

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman drew criticism this week for saying that false claims related to President Trump’s challenge to the 2020 election are not protected by the First Amendment.

“This idea that saying that Pennsylvania was ‘rigged’ or that we were ‘trying to steal the election,’ that’s a lie,” Fetterman, a Democrat, said in a video posted on the Hill’s Twitter account Friday. “And you do not have the right. That is not protected speech.”

Critics immediately piled on Fetterman, pointing out that the First Amendment to the Constitution does indeed protect the type of speech Fetterman referenced.

“WARNING LABEL: ‘This claim is determined to be ridiculously false,’” journalist Sharyl Atkisson tweeted. “Signed, US Constitution (Will Twitter take it down? I’m not advocating it do so, just pointing out if they were ‘fact checking’ and treating supposedly false claims fairly; they would.)”

“Getting really tired of being stuck between clowns insisting that certain bad/wrong speech being protected means we shouldn’t condemn it and other clowns claiming that speech they don’t like or that is bad should be illegal,” writer A.G. Hamilton tweeted.

“This man is a statewide elected official? He shows zero grasp of the principles of free speech or the protections of the First Amendment,” former Trump campaign adviser Steve Cortes tweeted.

Fetterman responded to the video post on Twitter by claiming that Pennsylvania was “smeared” during the 2020 election cycle.

“FACT: No state more smeared than Pennsylvania in this cycle,” he tweeted. “7M ballots cast. 3 cases of voter fraud. 100% of those for Trump. These claims are NOT disputed.”

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner as to whether or not a fact-check label would be put on Fetterman’s post.