Senate Confirms Radical Censor Alvaro Bedoya for FTC

The Senate voted on Wednesday to confirm Alvaro Bedoya for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) – a person who has condemned Breitbart News, called Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) a “swamp dweller,” and called for an advertiser boycott of Fox News Channel.

The Senate voted 51-50 to confirm Bedoya, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie. The Senate vote had been delayed after some Democrat senators contracted the coronavirus.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that confirming Bedoya would give Democrats a majority at the FTC, which would allow for the FTC Democrats to investigate alleged price gouging by “Big Oil.”

The FTC nominee holds many views that conservatives have considered controversial.

“Alvaro Bedoya is a radical anti-law enforcement activist that supports defunding the police to fight racism and climate change and has advocated taking away tools that border patrol utilizes to keep Americans safe,” a senior Republican aide told Breitbart News in late April. “Bedoya also supports increasing taxes on hard-working families to fund a left-wing climate agenda. He is a pawn for the Biden administration and the Squad.”

Bedoya has also been highly critical of law enforcement working with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency:

Maryland police have no business working with ICE.

Maryland police have no business working with ICE.

Maryland police have no business working with ICE.

Maryland police have no business working with ICE.

Maryland police have no business working with ICE. https://t.co/MakMtx70Dp

— Alvaro Bedoya (@alvarombedoya) April 10, 2021

Breitbart News has reported on Bedoya’s radical views, which include:

From December 2016 to December 2020, Bedoya served on the board of directors for the far-left Free Press organization, which has the backing of pro-censorship leftist billionaire Pierre Omidyar.

Free Press denounced Blackburn as a “swamp dweller” in 2017, adding that the Tennessee conservative mouthed the “most uninformed talking points.”

Free Press even accused Breitbart News of spreading “misinformation” and painting “people of color, immigrants, and religious minorities” as the “energy of the United States.”

In one tweet in February 2021, Bedoya wrote, “It is time to call ICE what it is: an out-of-control domestic surveillance agency that peers into all of our lives.’”

In a confirmation hearing, Bedoya claimed that he knew little about critical race theory (CRT), despite sitting on the board of an organization that actively promotes CRT.

Bedoya told Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) the FTC should “police big tech,” saying it needs “every tool at its disposal”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has blasted Bedoya as a “left-wing activist” and a “provocateur.”

Cruz noted that Bedoya retweeted MSNBC host Joy Reid after she called former President Donald Trump a “white supremacist.”

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) slammed Senate Democrats, including Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), and Michael Bennett (D-CO) for voting to confirm a “far-left liberal activist:”

Alvaro Bedoya is a far-Left liberal activist who has called Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) an “out of control domestic surveillance agency.” Bedoya has also called on state law enforcement agencies to not cooperate with ICE.

Bedoya has also advocated for Critical Race Theory and has ties to radical dark money groups like Demand Progress. But that didn’t stop Senate Democrats from voting to confirm him to a powerful position in the federal government.

A coalition of conservative organizations wrote to Senate Commerce Committee lawmakers in March, urging them against confirming Bedoya:

The confirmation of an ideological, progressive ally would give Chair Lina Khan an even freer hand in transforming the FTC, doing away with its rules, hamstringing businesses with red tape, and dismantling our market-driven economy. Khan has come under criticism for pursuing a hyper-regulatory, anti-business agenda, dispensing with the FTC’s precedents and rules along the way.

…

Bedoya has a history of personally attacking and supporting attacks on those he disagrees with. He has amplified Twitter posts calling Governors Abbott and DeSantis “death-eaters” and urging Republican Senators to resign. Additionally, Bedoya has shared numerous social media posts calling President Trump and individuals in the Trump administration “racist and white
supremacist.” He even liked a tweet disparaging Baron Trump. This type of aggressive rhetoric and behavior is inconsistent with the type of temperament required for a commissioner of the FTC.

“Bedoya’s confirmation would jeopardize investment and innovation, threaten the already weakening economy, and bring never before seen partisanship to the FTC,” the conservative groups concluded in their letter. “For these and other reasons, we urge Senators to reject Bedoya’s confirmation.

Americans for Limited Government President Richard Manning told the Daily Caller News Foundation:

Alvaro Bedoya is the wrong nominee for the Federal Trade Commission at the wrong time. Our nation’s economy is teetering and corporate wokism is a plague, the last thing America needs is for the Senate to confirm a radical leftist enabling the political weaponization of this extremely powerful federal agency.