Mayorkas Defends “Disinformation Czar”, Admits He Was Unaware Of Her Past
(TargetLiberty.org) – President Joe Biden’s administration is under fire for the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to create the Disinformation Governance Board. The new entity is supposed to combat disinformation and threats. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has said the board, which Republicans have dubbed the Ministry of Truth, is only serving in an advisory role.
Nonetheless, Conservatives are worried about the scope of the board’s work and the official the administration tapped to run it. The DHS secretary recently tried to explain away the official’s problematic remarks in the past.
The Pick
DHS tapped Nina Jankowicz to run the disinformation board. She’s an expert in misinformation tactics and wrote a book about Russia’s campaigns of fake news. Throughout her time as a private citizen, she has made a number of statements Conservatives believe demonstrate she is partisan.
For example, when the New York Post broke the Hunter Biden laptop story, Jankowicz was one of the voices on the Left who believed it was part of a larger conspiracy of fake news. She has also made comments about the Christopher Steele Dossier, claiming it was real and on other topics as well. When senators asked Mayorkas about the information, he sounded clueless.
Mayorkas Testimony
On May 4, Mayorkas went before the Senate Appropriations Committee to discuss the disinformation board. The secretary told lawmakers the board doesn’t have the authority to censor speech and will instead suggest best practices to fight disinformation. He claimed the board is designed to actually protect speech, civil liberties, and other important rights.
Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) wanted to know whether the secretary knew about Jankowicz’s partisan comments about Hunter Biden before his department hired her to lead such an important board. Mayorkas said he wasn’t going to reveal his department’s hiring practices but said he was unaware she’d made the remarks. The Republican senator asked if the secretary knew she’d said she could vouch for the Steele Dossier, too.
“I was not aware of that fact,” Mayorkas said.
Jankowicz also made a number of TikTok videos before DHS hired her. The senator asked the secretary if he knew about those videos and her talent as a singer. Mayorkas once again told lawmakers he didn’t know about her background before the department hired her.
Vetting candidates for government jobs is very important. But if the secretary is telling the truth, and hopefully he is since he was testifying before Congress, then it means his department did a terrible job on its background check. That’s unacceptable, especially since American taxpayers are footing the bill.
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