Biden administration’s plans to create a “Disinformation Governance Board” under the Department of Homeland Security frightens many concerned U.S. citizens.
Senator Josh Hawley, R-Ind., ripped off a furious note Thursday to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas .
“Surely no American administration would ever use the power of government to sit in judgement of the First Amendment speech of its own citizens,” Hawley wrote Mayorkas. The senator chastised the secretary for prioritizing policing political speech over protecting the country’s borders.
“This new board is almost certainly unconstitutional and should be dissolved immediately,” Hawley demanded.
Sunday, the beleaugured secretary told CNN reporter Dana Bash the proposed disinformation board would not be used against American citizens.
“The board does not have any operational authority or capability,” Mayorkas told CNN on Sunday. “What it will do is gather together best practices of addressing the threat of disinformation from foreign state adversaries, from the cartels, and disseminate those practices to the operators that have been executing and addressing this threat for years.”
His categorical denial that U.S. citizens will be monitored is reminiscent of a 2013 testimony former National Intelligence Director James Clapper gave before Congress.
Clapper was asked by Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in March 2013 if the NSA collected “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans,” according to an Associated Press report. Clapper answered that the agency did not.
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked a trove of classified documents three months later that proved the NSA had been compelling U.S. telecommunication providers to hand over copies of telephone records for pretty much every call and text occurring over domestic networks.
In 2019, Clapper denied he lied to Congress when he falsely testified the government does “not wittingly” collect the telephone records of millions of Americans.
Mayorkas further defended Nina Jankowicz, his controversial nominee to head the board during a Sunday interview with CNN’s Dana Bash.
Jankowich famously downplayed reports of Hunter Biden’s laptop that surfaced weeks before the 2020 general election.
An October 2020 Associated Press report described Jankowich as a disinformation expert. She reportedly said multiple red flags raised doubts about emails on the laptop believed to belong to President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. Jankowich further questioned whether the laptop actually belonged to Hunter Biden.
“We should view it as a Trump campaign product,” Jankowicz said at the time.
In a 2020 Twitter post to her account, she tried to pass the laptop story off as a “Russian influence op.” Mainstream media such as The New York Times and The Washngton Post have since verified much of the laptop material, undermining her conclusion about disinformation.
That incident, among others, has raised calls to find someone else to replace her, if the disinformation board actually gets formed.
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