Rep. Hank Johnson questions YouTube superstars Diamond & Silk (Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson) at a hearing Thursday about web censorship. Read their opening statement here.



Johnson accuses committee chair Bob Goodlatte of giving the ladies a platform to make even more money by inviting them to appear at the committee. "Donald Trump introduced you all at a rally last year, and he introduced you saying you were very popular and had made a ton of money based on your affiliation with him," Johnson said. "The point I'm trying to make is you all have been bashing Facebook and you've been making a ton of money, isn't that correct?"



"We didn't bash Facebook. We brought the light on how Facebook has been censoring conservative voices like ours," Diamond said. "They won't let us monetize on Facebook. They stopped it for six months, 29 days. They limited our page."











Silk added: "And Youtube did also by demonetizing 95% of our videos for no reason at all, deeming it as hate speech."



"Let me just say this here," Diamond also said. "If the shoe was on the other foot and Mark Zuckerberg was a conservative, and we were liberals, oh all fences and all chains would have broke loose. You know it and I know it. What I find appalling is these Democrats don't want to take up for our voice because we support the president."



"Democrats would be in the streets. Democrats would be in the streets right now marching and calling him all types of racist," Silk added.





REP. HANK JOHNSON: We could be looking at Russian hacking... we could be talking about in this committee legislation to protect the Mueller investigation. None of this areas has this committee been involved with during the last 15 months. We could be talking about gun control, the DREAM Act. No hearings whatsoever.



But what we are dealing with today, we are giving a platform to Diamond and Silk.



You ladies are very impressive to me, you have taken something and moved forward with it, exercising your first amendment rights, and you've made a ton of money off Facebook, is that correct?



DIAMOND: Absolutely not. Facebook censored us for six months.



JOHNSON: Donald Trump introduced you all at a rally last year, and he introduced you saying you were very popular and had made a ton of money based on your affiliation with him.



DIAMOND: Let me tell you what he was talking about. He was calling on those things that was not as though they were...



Facebook censored us for six months.



JOHNSON: The point I'm trying to make is you all have been bashing Facebook and you've been making a ton of money, isn't that correct?



SILK: They deemed us "unsafe to the community" and --



DIAMOND: What we did -- we didn't bash Facebook. We brought the light on how Facebook has been censoring conservative voices like ours... They won't let us monetize on Facebook. They stopped it for six months, 29 days. They limited our page.



SILK: And Youtube did also by demonetizing 95% of our videos for no reason at all, deeming it as hate speech, however all my to say --



JOHNSON: You still sell merchandise.



DIAMOND: Even if we sell merchandise that don't have nothing to do with Facebook. Facebook censored our free speech, and shame on the ones that don't even see that we have been censored.



Yet, when the Black Lives Matter people come in, everyone is up in arms. Let me just say this here, if the shoe was on the other foot and Mark Zuckerberg was a conservative, and we were liberals, oh all fences and all chains would have broke loose. You know it and I know it. What I find appalling is these Democrats don't want to take up for our voice because we support the president.



SILK: Democrats would be in the streets. Democrats would be in the streets right now marching and calling him all types of racist.





They shared a five minute opening statement at a Thursday House Judiciary Committee hearing: