Kari Lake Finds Out That Armenians Speak Armenian In Real Time

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At Wednesday's House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA) questioned Voice of America Director Kari Lake.

Transcript

00:00talking about today. With that, it's my pleasure to recognize my colleague, the gentleman from

00:04California, Mr. Costa. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Obviously, we're in a discussion here

00:10where there's a lot of agreement to disagree. And I happen to think that the efforts that

00:20Voice of America and its international broadcasting and its expansion post-World War II,

00:26along with the efforts to deal with Cuba broadcasting radio and TV. There's a whole

00:32list of, I think, successes over the post-World War efforts that we've been engaged in with

00:41the communist countries in which we have been able to tell the real story about America.

00:49Now, if you want to make modifications, reforms, I think this committee is an appropriate place to

00:55do that oversight. Having said that, I'd like to specify a particular area that deals with

01:03Armenia and the Voice of Armenia. Do you happen to know, Ms. Lake, I come from the land of William

01:10Saroy, and I assume you know what language the people of Armenia speak?

01:18I've actually heard it. It's a beautiful language. I can't name it. Can you please tell me?

01:24Yeah, it's Armenia.

01:26The story of Armenian language and the Voice of Armenia was so that the people of Armenia would

01:33understand who were under the oppression of the Soviet Union what America stood for and what our

01:40values stood for. How many people work at the Voice of America on their Armenian services? Do you know?

01:46Right now, it's not a statutory, statutorily required language, so we do not have, we will not be

01:54having employees in that. Let me tell you, because you had all these cuts that I don't think are

01:57surgical. They've been done with a, I think, some sort of disregard for, you have five people,

02:06you had five people, one full-time staffer and four contractors. They've all been placed on leave

02:11since March of this year. Did you or former fellow, the Elon Musk, talk to anyone about the Voice of

02:22America's Armenian service before these cuts were made?

02:25We are bringing the agency to statutory minimum, and Armenian language is not in the statutory minimum.

02:32If you'd like it to be, then I suggest you write legislation and put it in legislation.

02:36What analysis was done to assess the performance of the services before the cuts were made?

02:42We decided to listen to the person who's in charge of the executive branch of the government,

02:47and that person's name is President Donald J. Trump.

02:50Well, I suspect that maybe the president's not sure about the language that the Armenian people speak,

02:56but that be as it may. The Voice of America's own data showed that the Armenian language reached well

03:03over one-third of Armenia's adult population and ranked second in network-wide market penetration.

03:10The Voice of America brief notes said that the service unique role encountering the Russian disinformation

03:16and explaining U.S. policy to Armenians at the moment when Yerevan is trying to move out of Moscow's orbit.

03:24There are a lot of reasons why I think this is important, because of the Russian disinformation.

03:29Do you believe that Russia's been engaged in disinformation with Armenia or other countries on Eastern Europe?

03:38Obviously, you have a soft spot in your heart for Armenia. I think the people of Armenia are incredible.

03:43But we're working to right-size this agency, and the Armenian language is not one of the statutory required languages.

03:49Well, I know, but there's got to be a cause and a reason for your changes here, and I'm trying to find out what they are.

03:56How many people do you think we should hire in the Armenian language service?

04:00Well, what I think we should do is recognize the fact that Russia is attempting, through misinformation,

04:06to keep Armenia in their orbit.

04:10Do you believe that Russia is the aggressor in the war in Ukraine?

04:17You know what? It's interesting that you really are concerned about Russia,

04:20because VOA hired Russian spies, and I think that – I didn't hear any complaints coming from you that I had a call.

04:28I asked you a question. Do you believe Russia is an adversary of the United States?

04:33I think they are one of our adversaries, yes.

04:36Okay.

04:37And why would we wonder if this president is just trying to bring the world together?

04:41They are dismissing staff who are countering Russian propaganda to potential partners of the United States.

04:48I mean, the reason is, I mean, the focus today is on Iran, okay?

04:52Tomorrow it could be Armenia.

04:54I thought it was on Armenia.

04:54Tomorrow it could be Armenia.

04:55And I think that when you put the voice of America's Persian service on leave,

05:02only to call them back after when Israel and we started trading missile strikes,

05:08I mean, isn't that a tacit admission that there were need for people to be on duty to provide that information, the voice of Iran?

05:17I've worked in newsrooms.

05:18You surge on stories when you need to surge.

05:21We have always had the Farsi language as one of our statutory languages, and we've been covering it.

05:27Well, my time's expired, Ms. Lake, but I think that you've got to look more carefully at how you reorganize this effort

05:35and more to be determined, okay?

05:38The gentleman's time has expired.

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