Politics

George Will: Deregulate political speech, call it ‘freedom’

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
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During the online segment of Sunday’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulous,” Washington Post columnist George Will described the pitfalls of attempting to regulate political speech in country where free speech is protected by the Constitution.

Will took aim at the rule that restricts super PACs from interacting with particular candidates, which he said isn’t necessary or effective because people associated with super PACs are familiar with the campaigns they are supporting.

“The rule obvious, that you can’t coordinate with the candidate if you’re a super PAC, is not honored and breached — it’s just kind of silly because all the people who are in the super PACs and supporting the super PACs are political sophisticates. They know what the campaign needs, wants. They don’t need to communicate by email or telephone.”

“This kind of pretense or charade is what you get when you get into the business of regulating political speech in a country with the First Amendment,” he continued. “If we would just deregulate political speech — let anyone give anything they want to anyone, call it ‘freedom,’ what a concept, and we wouldn’t have all these pretenses.”

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