Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) presidential aspiration has imperiled the push to pass the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA). Congressional staffers told Breitbart News the bill could be canned ahead of Thursday’s hearing.
As support for the JCPA has waned as Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) withdrew his support for the bill, some congressional staffers have questioned if Klobuchar’s push to pass antitrust legislation would serve as another notch on her belt ahead of a presidential election. This includes the controversial JCPA as well as the American Innovation and Choice Online Act.
One recent August poll found that 75 percent of Democrat voters want someone other than President Joe Biden to run for the Democrat ticket in 2024.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, April 26, 2022. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Among the many other hopefuls, Klobuchar — the two-term senator and first woman to represent the state of Minnesota in the Senate — has been labeled a potential contender to replace the 46th president.
Klobuchar’s first presidential run did not progress well, as she received only seven pledged delegates before dropping out in March 2020 and endorsing Biden for president.
A 2019 New York Times exposé found that Klobuchar had been cruel to her staff and even ate with a comb once and then after made her staff clean it.
However, should she run in 2024, she would not have to contend with Biden as a potential frontrunner, and a field that features poorly favored frontrunners such as Vice President Kamala Harris.
Now, under the Biden administration and ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Klobuchar has appeared to attempt to increase her legislative record. This is why some Hill staffers have wondered why Klobuchar has shifted from more kitchen table issues for Minnesota such as rural broadband and antitrust. Some say that it focuses on her presidential aspiration.
Sens. Klobuchar, John Kennedy (R-LA), as well as Reps. Ken Buck (R-CO) and David Cicilline (D-RI) introduced the JCPA on March 10, 2021, shortly after the beginning of Biden’s first congressional term.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 17, 2022. (Anna Rose Layden/Pool Photo via AP)
One congressional aide told Breitbart News, “I think a bunch of us suspect she sees it as a politically smart way to kind of get an entree into antitrust, on the bigger level, right? Like, let me remake industries wholesale, but I’ll start with tech because I know that that’s like politically palatable to some people.”
Despite multiple hearings on the JCPA through both chambers of Congress, the bill has yet to make progress.
The aide also questioned why Senate Democrat leadership has given her so much leeway to move on antitrust legislation that other potential presidential candidates, such as Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), were not given.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), left, speaks to Sen. Cory Booker, (D-NJ) at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, June 23, 2021. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The aide asked rhetorically, “Is there a 2024 play, and do they know something that we don’t know? Or are they like that, you know, we don’t know what happened? Right? Because it seems like they’ve given her a room that they’re not, you know, they don’t give to other members. She’s been able to come out and contradict [Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer publicly.”
The congressional aide explained to Breitbart News that Klobuchar does not merely want to introduce a bill; the Minnesota Democrat wants legislation that could pass, which is why she teamed up with Kennedy and Buck on the JCPA.
The aide said that Klobuchar was very “magnanimous” about other senators’ efforts even though her JCPA “coalition” appears to be collapsing.
The aide said that the bill could likely be dead; however, after last week’s hearing. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced an amendment to ensure that content moderation would not be a part of negotiations between the media cartel and big tech. Cruz’s amendment passed after Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) was not present for the hearing, and Klobuchar admitted that the deal between herself and Kennedy about the bill was “blown up.”
Blake Reid, a University of Colorado law professor who specializes in technology policy, said that when the focus becomes content moderation bipartisan support “starts to crumble or at least get more complicated.”
The disagreement between Kennedy and Klobuchar could be fatal to the bill. The Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to have a hearing on the bill and potentially vote to advance it out of committee on Thursday despite the headwinds blowing against the bill.
The aide said, “I just don’t see how they can not pull it [the JCPA]. I just don’t see how she is going to reach an agreement with Kennedy and Cruz before Thursday morning.”
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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