Freshman Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) is set to deliver his maiden speech on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon in which he will denounce federal overreach and what he sees as the censorship of conservatives by the government.
The Missouri senator’s remarks come about six months after he was sworn into office. Before his time in the U.S. Senate, he served eight years as a state senator, representing parts of central and western St. Louis County, followed by two years as Missouri’s treasurer and a four-year term as attorney general.
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After an introduction, Schmitt will rail against the “administrative state,” calling it a threat to the founders’ vision for the country.
“The vast expansion of federal administrative power that we’ve seen in recent history is destroying representative government by placing immense power in the hands of the unelected,” Schmitt will say, according to preview excerpts provided to the Washington Examiner. “This massive aggregation of federal regulatory power is eating away at our freedoms and liberties, deepening political division, and cheapening discourse, and it’s completely antithetical to the vision of the founders.”
Schmitt will also discuss the danger posed by attacks on freedom of speech. Schmitt, who served as the Show Me State’s top prosecutor, led a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against the Biden administration, alleging it worked in tandem with social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter to censor statements they deemed “misinformation” about topics including the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This vast censorship enterprise was at the behest of some of the highest-ranking government officials in the country. For example, the surgeon general of the United States was messaging with senior Facebook executives demanding that they censor speech more stringently,” Schmitt will say.
“Whatever your political persuasion is, this should frighten every single American. Our government is supposed to be protecting our rights and liberties, not infringing on them, and we have to ensure that it never happens again,” he will add.
The senator has remained focused on the topic of censorship on Capitol Hill. Schmitt, a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, was a vocal critic of Biden’s nominee to head of the Federal Communications Commission, Gigi Sohn, whom he feared would censor conservative speech. She was ultimately forced to withdraw her nomination after centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced his opposition.
During Sohn’s Feb. 14 Senate Commerce Committee hearing, Schmitt pointedly questioned her over what he called discrimination against conservatives by prominent tech companies and pressed her further about ties between Big Tech companies and nonprofit groups she was affiliated with.
“It is not the government’s job to determine what we can hear or believe. Each one of us can make those decisions for ourselves. Period,” Schmitt will say in his speech Tuesday.
The maiden speech is a Senate tradition in which new senators set the tone for their term by giving their first major address on the floor. Typically, Senate leaders, along with the senator’s senior colleague from his or her home state, will be on hand to witness the speech while the new senator’s family watches from the gallery.
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Schmitt also plans to talk about his son Stephen, who has epilepsy and tuberous sclerosis and has been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. In the past, Schmitt has supported Missouri legislation that would allow cannabidiol, a cannabis extract, to be used to treat epilepsy patients.
The senator has previously said he hopes he’ll be able to do more on the federal level and will say his son has been the inspiration behind his public service.
