Gregory Meeks Clashes With Kari Like In Blistering House Hearing Confrontation

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At today's House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) questioned Voice of America Director Kari Lake.

Transcript

00:00Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me first enter to the record a letter that you and I

00:11received, Mr. Chairman, from four bipartisan members of the International Broadcasting

00:16Advisory Board, which Congress established and confirmed in 2023. Thank you. Now, Ms.

00:22Lake, you may recall the White House fired the board members earlier. Let me just first say

00:29this, because I do agree with Mr. McCall on the need of making sure that the Voice of

00:35America in those places where our adversaries have false information going through. But

00:47you cannot do that simply by reducing and ending all individuals that have worked within that

00:54agency. So now, these board members, for example, that were fired, despite their political and

01:03policy differences, those members wrote, and I quote, defunding, as you have done, these

01:12networks, because you can't do anything without money, but defunding these networks at this

01:18critical moment will undermine the United States' efforts to counter the biased narratives from

01:25America's authoritarian competitors. It's crucial. Some have said that it seems as though that

01:33our adversaries under this administration have been considered or treated like they're our allies,

01:40and our allies have been treated as if they're our adversaries. Now, I agree with the experts that put this

01:52letter in. There are grave risks right now for the United States national security posed by dismantling USAGM and the

02:05broadcasters it supports. Now, one of the things I want to do, maybe we can do this, and it's

02:10trying to save some time. I, you know, I serve on the Financial Services Committee also, where we often

02:15engage with companies about the risk analysis that they perform before making major business decisions

02:21to outpace their competitors. Uh, and I know I hear my Republican colleagues often say that, uh,

02:27government should be run like a business. So I just want to try to just get a few yes or no

02:32questions in the time that we have, uh, just so that I know we can either get some of the information

02:38that the chairman said you are bringing or have brought with you. So my question to you is,

02:44did you conduct or review a written analysis before placing most of the USAGM's and VOA's employees on

02:53administrative leave on March 15th, before cutting off payments to USAGM grantees in March, or before

03:01announcing a reduction in force at the VOA last Friday? Yes or no? I've been working in media for

03:0930 years and in every newsroom across this country in that time. Yes or no? Did you do? This, these are,

03:15these are complex questions. They're not yes or no questions. It's either you did a review or you didn't.

03:20We are, we are right sizing an agency that has grown and grown and grown. Did you do a review?

03:24We have looked, we've reviewed. Yes, we've reviewed. You've done a review. We have a record. Do you have

03:29a record of what you reviewed? We have, we have reviewed the number of employees, the number of

03:34languages. But most of all, what we've reviewed was an executive order March 14th by the man who's

03:41in charge of the executive branch. I want to know. His name is Donald Trump. Do you have a record that you

03:47can produce? The chairman said you have a bunch of things with you. Do you have a record of what you

03:53reviewed and who you reviewed to? We reviewed the statute. Do you have a record? Yes or no? We have

03:58the statute. Do you have a record? And we reviewed the statute. Yeah, we can pull that statute. If you

04:02have a, not the statute, the record of individuals that you reviewed, interviewed or talked to before

04:09you committed your actions of dismantling. I worked with, I talked to a lot of people at the agency. Do you

04:15have a record of that? You could go back and look at emails. Do you have a record? Do you want me to pull emails?

04:20I want you to show the record of what you did, Ms. Lake. Well, you can take a look at it. Don't

04:24just give me something that's not verified. Tell me, show me the record because that's what I hear

04:31oftentimes in the business. You have to have a record. Show me the record that you did, what you

04:36did. That's all. It's pretty obvious. I mean, did you survey? Let me ask this question then. Did you

04:44survey employees that was there about waste, fraud, and abuse you believe was occurring at the agency?

04:53Did you survey? We know that there's waste, fraud, and abuse. Did you survey the employees? Yes or no?

04:59What? Yes or no? These are ridiculous questions. Did you serve? Simple answers. You either did or you

05:06didn't. Yeah, I guess survey means talk to and ask questions. Did you do it or not? Sure, we did.

05:11You did? Then you can provide those surveys. You can show us a record of who you talked to. We did not

05:16run an expensive survey, but I've talked to many people at the safety. You didn't do, so you didn't do

05:21that either. So this was based on a whim. Okay. Thank you, member. Time has expired. I want to thank you for your

05:26five minutes of questioning. I'm now going to recognize Representative Smith for five minutes

05:31of questioning. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and welcome to the committee.

05:35Ms. Leake. I chair the Congressional Executive Commission on China. We've had many, many hearings.

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