00:00Madam Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity, Ms. Lake.
00:04Hi.
00:05So I want to address a couple things that was just recently said.
00:09Representative Burchett was trying to imply with his questioning of you that it's just a Voice of America is a relic.
00:16I just looked it up and 354 million people listen to it every week.
00:21So I would hardly qualify or classify that as a relic.
00:24Those are government numbers and I don't trust those numbers.
00:27Well, that's a sad state of affairs when you don't trust the government that you're representing and that you're working for and an agency that you're in charge of.
00:33That's a pathetic statement to tell the American people that you don't trust the government that you're leading.
00:39So next, this is my time.
00:42This is my time.
00:43And so, and Representative Kim, I share your concerns.
00:48I was comforted to hear that she expressed concerns to you that, quote, I wrote it down,
00:52she worries about the U.S. ability to win the information we're going forward.
00:56And I share that concern.
00:58I'm very concerned that we are ceding ground.
01:01In her own statement, she said that the Voice of America is vital in contradicting the CCP China propaganda.
01:09And I completely concur with her.
01:10But it's sharing CCP propaganda.
01:11So, no, this is, we are countering their propaganda.
01:15Okay.
01:16So, I have some questions.
01:17You know, this is, I just want to make sure that I have the record correct and I have your statements correct.
01:23You have called the Voice of America anti-American propaganda, correct?
01:27And I think you're implying that today.
01:29Is that right?
01:30They have put forth propaganda from other countries.
01:33Sadly, I'm very sad about that.
01:34And so, and would you, and you do consider Voice of America to be a biased agency.
01:38Is that correct?
01:39They have been, yes.
01:40And you agree that the characterization of Voice of America's track record is unsalvageable and appalling.
01:47Is that correct?
01:48Pardon me?
01:49You think that the Voice of America's track record is unsalvageable, correct?
01:54I think that this agency, U.S. Agency for Global Media, is unsalvageable.
01:59That we can pull parts that are decent and we could work with, and that would be VOA.
02:04Yeah.
02:05And the thing that's so stunning is that this is an exact set of messaging put out,
02:09by the Chinese.
02:11That VOA is a frontline propaganda tool.
02:14VOA is widely recognized as Washington's carefully crafted propaganda machine.
02:20This is Chinese propaganda.
02:22That you are restating as an American official.
02:24You're right.
02:25VOA is putting out Chinese propaganda.
02:26No, no, no.
02:27Excuse me.
02:28But that is absolutely outrageous.
02:30That what is happening now is that the Trump administration has cut 70, gone from 71 employees to 2.
02:3771 to 2 of the people running Voice of America in China.
02:43That's not true.
02:44And now we have a situation where you are essentially parroting the Chinese propaganda for the dismantling of Voice of America.
02:52So what do we have?
02:53We have the Trump administration cutting all service personnel of this agency.
02:58We have the head of the Trump administration who is over this agency parroting Chinese propaganda.
03:04And all we are doing is seeding America's critical voice.
03:08We are the counterbalance in the world of democracy against China, against North Korea, against Russia, the Americans, the United States government.
03:18We are the voice.
03:20We are the voice of democracy.
03:22We are the voice that the world relies on for accurate information, just as Representative Kim implied in Iran.
03:30She's a member of the opposing party.
03:33This is not, this is Republican and a Democrat agreeing that the voice of America is critical.
03:40And you are gutting it, dismantling.
03:43If you had concerns, why don't you just fire the people who are giving information you don't agree with and hire some others?
03:50Why are you just throwing the entire agency out, seeding America's role in the world of information to the Chinese,
03:58are our enemy of disinformation?
04:01You know, we have had multiple hearings of this committee, multiple,
04:06being very concerned over propaganda and disinformation that the Chinese are propagating in our country and throughout the world.
04:14And instead of stepping it up and fighting harder and bringing American might to the fight and the truth of what we believe in,
04:22we're saying, take it!
04:24You can have it all.
04:26We're just going to go away because we don't believe what we're doing anymore.
04:29And that is absolutely outrageous.
04:33We are ceding all of our soft power in the world to our adversaries,
04:38because the Trump administration doesn't believe in accurate truth.
04:43And I just cannot for the life of me figure out why it is that you want to do it.
04:49It's just unconscionable to me. And unfortunately, I'm out of time. I yield back.
04:54Maybe you should run for president.
04:56I'm a member of Congress and I'm very happy where I am. Thank you.
04:59Okay. Well, because the president won with an overwhelming mandate.
05:02And the president has the right to put forth an executive order.
05:06And I have the duty to effectuate that executive order.
05:11We have roles and responsibility of oversight as members of Congress.
05:14And that is exactly what we're doing.
05:15Do you have a responsibility to the American taxpayers?
05:16And I don't think the president campaigned to cede all of American propaganda,
05:20all of American information to the Chinese.
05:22I don't think that that is exactly what he wrote.
05:24I don't think that's what the American people voted for.
