Senator Rand Paul delivered a blistering rebuke of the Biden administration’s Disinformation Governance Board, telling Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “I don’t trust government to figure out what the truth is.”
The Political Insider reported last week that the DHS had set up the new board and, according to Mayorkas, will “address this threat (of misinformation).”
The dystopian-sounding board will feature Nina Jankowicz as Executive Director, who boasted of the new position and stated she looks forward to helping “shape … counter-disinformation efforts.”
Jankowicz, on multiple occasions, spread disinformation concerning Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Mayorkas claimed he was unaware of the misinformation his new disinformation expert had peddled.
Senator Josh Hawley asks alejandro mayorkas what the hiring process was like for nina jankowicz. mayorkas says they didn’t interview anyone else. pic.twitter.com/DntTBa3VX8
— Eddie (@_EddieHaskill) May 4, 2022
RELATED: Ron DeSantis Slams Biden’s ‘Ministry of Truth’, Vows to Fight New ‘Disinformation’ Board
Rand Paul Slams Mayorkas Over Disinformation Board
Mayorkas was speaking to lawmakers on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
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Paul (R-KY) challenged the Secretary regarding information and debating the truth, citing pandemic claims he personally has made which at one point would have been dubbed ‘misinformation’ but later turned out to be true.
“I’ve said a million times that cloth masks don’t work. YouTube takes me down. They’re a private company I can have that beef with him. What about you? You’re going to look at that?” he asked.
“I often say that natural immunity from having had the infection is equal to the vaccine or better. You’re going to take that down?”
For that matter, the Hunter Biden laptop that Jankowicz defended as ‘Russian disinformation’ would also constitute something the administration once claimed was ‘disinformation’ but later was determined to be true and accurate.
Rand Paul:
“I want you to have nothing to do with speech. You think the American people are so stupid, they need you to tell them what the truth is? You can’t even admit the truth about the Steele Dossier”.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/Pe9CwVTduB— 🇺🇸 Michael 2022 🇺🇸 (@Michael20224) May 5, 2022
“Are you going to put information out there saying that I’m spreading disinformation?” Paul asked.
Mayorkas instead chose to give an example of misinformation the Board might seek to regulate.
“‘Do not under any circumstances accept the vaccine at a FEMA-overseen vaccination center because they are actually peddling fentanyl out.’ Should I sit back and take that, or should I actually disseminate accurate information?’” he said. “That’s what we would do.”
“What this working group seeks to do is actually develop guidelines, standards, guardrails to ensure that the work that has been ongoing for nearly 10 years does not infringe on people’s free speech rights, rights of privacy, civil rights and civil liberties,” added Mayorkas.
Senator Paul wasn’t having it.
“I don’t want you to have guard rails,” Paul replied. “I want you to have nothing to do with speech.”
Amen.
Ministry of Truth
Rand Paul began his takedown of Mayorkas by challenging him to define the Steele dossier as disinformation. Mayorkas naturally, could not, or would not.
“Do you think the Steele dossier included Russian disinformation?” he asked.
Mayorkas replied, “That’s not a question that I’m equipped to answer.”
Paul noted it is essentially common knowledge that the dossier has been debunked and said networks like CNN were spreading the false information. Still, he argued government shouldn’t be regulating information even that information.
Today I questioned @SecMayorkas. We work our issues out by debating them, not by making the government the arbiter of truth.
“I want you to have nothing to do with speech…You think the American people are so stupid, they need you to tell them what the truth is?” pic.twitter.com/Tq6mtzluSe
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) May 4, 2022
The Republican lawmaker then suggested the Biden administration views the American people as too stupid to sift through facts and information.
“I have a greater respect for the American people than you do. I think the American people can figure out the truth,” said Paul.
“If you are going to go around saying that you’re the arbiter of information and of disinformation, I think you have no clue,” he railed.
Paul pointed out that the biggest peddler of disinformation in the country’s history is the U.S. government itself.
Yes, the biggest fake news organization is the US Government. They have lied to us for decades. https://t.co/lK9mlcXCKh
— Abortionismurder (@KerryMu02226462) May 4, 2022
“Do you think the American people are so stupid they need you to tell them what the truth is? You can’t even admit what the truth is with the Steele dossier,” Paul fired back.
“I don’t trust government to figure out what the truth is.”
Nor should anybody else.
The Biden Administration’s creation of a “disinformation” bureau within DHS is effectively a Ministry of Truth that is alien to our constitutional tradition.
Florida rejects Biden’s attempt to enforce regime-approved narratives and to stifle dissent. pic.twitter.com/fSnU2gk97x
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) April 29, 2022
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has slammed the newly-announced Disinformation Governance Board, calling it the “Ministry of Truth.”
“You cannot have a Ministry of Truth in this country. We’re not going to let Biden get away with this one,” he told reporters at a press conference last week.
The ‘Ministry of Truth’ is a reference to George Orwell’s classic novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, where the department is responsible for propaganda, historical revisionism, culture, and entertainment.
Both Republican and Democrat lawmakers have expressed concerns over the Disinformation Governance Board.
“As far as I’m concerned, the government has no business saying that this is disinformation and this is information,” Representative Jim Himes (D-CT) said.
You’d think Mayorkas would also be concerned about the government controlling disinformation. Especially considering he recently claimed the administration has “operational control” of the border and has “effectively managed” the border crisis.
