Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C., has criticised sections of the local media for downplaying recent social media statements made by members of the United States Congress, saying such posts often reflect serious policy positions of the U.S. government.
Speaking during Tuesday’s episode of his weekly programme Issues in the News, Nandlall referenced two posts made on X (formerly Twitter) by a U.S. Congressman and Congresswoman. The statements, published on consecutive days, sparked political reactions in Guyana. However, Nandlall insisted that these public remarks should not be dismissed or viewed as casual commentary.
“We’ve had experiences here in Guyana of U.S. politicians, from the President right down, using Twitter to make important statements. This didn’t start yesterday,” Nandlall said. “President Donald Trump might’ve made it popular, but many other key officials have used that platform to share serious policy views.”
The Attorney General recalled the 2020 general elections, during which U.S. officials took to social media to denounce alleged efforts by the then APNU+AFC government to rig the outcome. “Congressmen and women, and even the U.S. Secretary of State at the time, Mike Pompeo, tweeted America’s position clearly—condemning those attempts and urging then-President Granger to concede,” he said. “Sanctions were even threatened, and all of that was communicated on Twitter.”
Referencing that episode, Nandlall argued that tweets from U.S. lawmakers are far more than personal opinions. “These messages carry weight. They are not just offhand remarks. Whether it’s a Congressman or a Congresswoman, when they post on social media, they are often stating the position of the U.S. government,” he said.
Nandlall was responding in part to local media reports questioning the authenticity of the recent posts and suggesting they may have been crafted by a lobbying firm hired by the Guyanese government. He strongly rejected that notion and said such claims were disrespectful to U.S. lawmakers.
“Rather than focusing on the actual content of the tweets, some have chosen to speculate about a lobbying company supposedly being paid by the Government of Guyana,” he said. “Are they seriously suggesting that U.S. Congress members have no independence, that they’re just repeating what someone else paid them to say?”
He continued, “That line of thinking is not just insulting—it’s dangerous. It assumes that elected officials in the U.S. have no integrity, that they’re puppets. I find that extremely shocking.”
Nandlall maintained that policymakers in the U.S. often use platforms like X to communicate important decisions and warned against dismissing such messages simply because they appear online. He also urged journalists and commentators to show more respect for the seriousness of such statements, especially when they involve matters of international relations and diplomacy.
