YouTube apologizes for yanking Pa. GOP governor forum video

The biggest news in the Republican primary for governor this week was Big Tech backing down when called out for censorship.

YouTube apologized Wednesday for yanking the video of a forum last week for Republicans running for governor in Pennsylvania.

The forum’s sponsor, the Pennsylvania Family Institute, appealed Sunday’s initial ruling that the video violated YouTube’s misinformation policy about the 2020 presidential election results.

Google, which owns YouTube, confirmed to Clout that the video was reinstated.

“We’re sorry for any frustration our mistake caused you,” YouTube wrote Wednesday in an email to the Institute.

Michael Geer, the Institute’s president, said the video controversy will likely draw more attention to the forum than it would have received otherwise. He also said fighting back against what he had called a “blatant assault on free speech” will bring more support to his group.

“That doesn’t alleviate my concerns about what YouTube did,” Geer said.

The two-hour forum at Cairn University in Langhorne drew seven of the nine Republicans in the primary, discussing education, crime, energy, COVID-19, abortion, and other issues.

The first policy question asked how candidates would “restore election integrity.”

YouTube never identified the problem with the video but told the Institute on Sunday: “Content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches change the outcome of the US 2020 presidential election is not allowed on YouTube.”

The candidates mostly complained in the forum about a 2019 state law that allowed for no-excuse mail ballots, prompting a 2020 wave of disproven claims about voter fraud.

Those lies have been largely pushed by former President Donald Trump, who lost that election to President Joe Biden. Of more than 2.6 million votes cast by mail in Pennsylvania in that election, only a handful — all cast for Trump — have been found to be fraudulent.

Attacking that law, passed three years ago with overwhelming support from Republican legislators, has become a standard GOP campaign tactic. Two candidates who skipped the forum — State Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman (R., Centre) and Sen. Doug Mastriano (R., Franklin) — voted for the law and now campaign on repealing it.

Former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta of Hazleton claimed in the forum — without offering proof — that mail ballots are used “to steal elections” and that “dead people have been voting in Pennsylvania all our lives.”

While Geer said YouTube was expected to be the biggest online draw for an audience, video and audio of the forum has been available since last week on Facebook, 1210-WPHT-AM’s website, and the Pennsylvania Cable Network.

Philadelphia emergency room doctor Kevin Baumlin ended his long-shot campaign for the U.S. Senate on Thursday.

It wasn’t entirely his decision to drop out: Baumlin faced a legal challenge for his nomination petitions that questioned whether he had enough signatures from voters in all of the state’s 67 counties.

Clout wanted to know who was behind that challenge, filed by a voter named Barry Nelson. The legal claim says nothing about Nelson except that he is a registered Democrat in the state

Sources pointed to State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta. That made sense, since Kenyatta is the only other Democrat from Philadelphia on the primary ballot, and geography can matter.

Kenyatta wouldn’t say whether his campaign was paying attorney Adam Bonin to bring the challenge.

But after some mind-numbing combing through petitions, we found one for Kenyatta by a circulator named Barry Nelson with a Center City address.

Kenyatta declined to comment on that, too. We found a phone number for the circulator tied to his address and texted him. “Wrong Barry,” he responded in a text.

For his part, Baumlin said the challenge was only part of the reason he ended his campaign. He broke his ankle six weeks ago, and campaigning in a boot has been a challenge.

“It just wasn’t my time,” he told Clout.

Kenyatta still trails primary competitors Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb in polls and fund-raising. But at least he won’t have Baumlin to worry about, as long as a court approves the doctor’s ballot exit.

Philadelphia’s former chief public defender, Keir Bradford-Grey, is exploring a 2024 run for state attorney general with the help of a political action committee launched in February.

Pennsylvanians For Effective Government is hosting a “March Madness Fundraiser” for Bradford-Grey next week, hosted by former Temple University basketball star Lynn Greer, according to an invitation obtained by Clout. “Suggested contributions” range from $500 to $10,000.

Bradford-Grey declined to comment. Someone close to her said she’s “testing the water.”

She already has established political infrastructure for a Democratic primary two years off, including an ActBlue page for donors. Bradford-Grey signed off on the new PAC’s registration, authorizing the fund-raising for a campaign for attorney general. Political consultants Princeton Strategies are on board.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro, now the lone Democrat running for governor, is serving his second term and can’t seek a third due to term limits, making 2024 an open-seat race likely to draw plenty of competitors.

Bradford-Grey, who stepped down as chief defender in 2021 after eight years, has been courted to run for office before, including for Philadelphia district attorney in 2017 and 2021.

Staff writer Andrew Seidman contributed to this article.

Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.