PRINCETON, Mass. - Taking a moment during his annual farm tour, Rep. Jim McGovern responded to Mark Zuckerberg's letter to Congress where the Meta CEO claimed the Biden administration "pressured" the social media outlet to censor some COVID-19 content.

"I think it's kind of pathetic that he would do something like that," McGovern said when asked to respond to the letter's contents. "What he's trying to do is to try and win favor from Donald Trump in case Donald Trump wins the presidency because he knows Trump has been critical of him and his organization. I think it's just him playing politics with an issue, you know, trying to curry favor with Trump and the MAGA Republicans. I mean, come on. And, again, there's no evidence of that at all. But it's just political posturing and, quite frankly, it's disgusting." 

In a letter sent to the House Judiciary Committee and posted on Facebook by Rep. Steve Scalise dated Aug. 26, Zuckerberg wrote, "In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for month to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree."

Zuckerberg admitted later in the letter that, "Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to tak content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure. I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it. I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn't make today."

"When confronted with a deadly pandemic, this Administration encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety," the White House said in a statement. "Our position has been clear and consistent: we believe tech companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices in about the information they present."

McGovern reiterated the letter was political and intentional. 

"Look, what's at stake in this election is our democracy and our freedom and people need to wake up to that fact," McGovern said. "And leaders like Mark Zuckerberg and others in the high-tech field need to actually develop a backbone and stand up to his bullying and actually help create a climate in this country where democracy and freedom can thrive."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.