'Should We Be Putting $100,000 Towards... An Afghan Cricket Team?': Kari Lake & Jim Baird Slam VOA

Forbes Breaking News

During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing last week, Rep. Jim Baird (R-IN) questioned USAGM Kari Lake about Voice Of America's budget.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ms. Lake, we really appreciate what you're trying to do

00:05in the reform and really appreciate you being here.

00:08You know, my question focused on, I know some of my colleagues and the public observers

00:13are really concerned about what's happening in the USAGM and are unhappy about what seems

00:20to be reducing its capacity to communicate with foreign national populations around the

00:26world. Of those, you know, Chinese, North Koreans, Cubans, Venezuelans, Russians, and Iranians,

00:34they further claim that our reduction in withdrawal from the broadcasting spaces will create a vacuum

00:40that these other governments, many of which are communist governments, will be happy to

00:45fill. I'm not sure that I agree with that at all, but I would ask you, how would you

00:51respond to these critics for your current efforts to consolidate broadcasting efforts?

00:58We can't continue to spend money the way we have in the federal government. There have

01:02to be ways that we can reduce the spending. And President Trump has determined that this

01:07is an agency that we can reduce the spending. We don't need to be broadcasting in all of

01:11these languages. We need to be more nimble and focus on areas where the U.S. government

01:16and where the United States needs to get a message out to people. And I think we can do a better job

01:22at it when we're nimble and smaller. And we have proof of that because our Persian team

01:26that came to work when the bombs dropped on Saturday and the president did his address,

01:32we sprung into action, we got the message out, and they said in a way it was easier to do that

01:37because it wasn't such a big group.

01:39I understand that. And that makes it makes it more nimble. And you said that in earlier comments.

01:46And so that's very much appreciated. So do you think the United States needs to fund the

01:52international broadcasting operations into all of these and other countries in order to influence

01:57those populations? Do we have do you think we have the ability to influence populations and getting

02:03that information to those populations is worthwhile?

02:07I think we have the ability. Information is it can be used to influence people in many different

02:14forms, whether it be through social media and governments are doing this. They're seeding

02:19narratives on social media. It's how things are done. China's doing it. Russia's doing it.

02:24America's doing it. The question is, do we need to spend the money that we are spending? Do we need

02:30to spend nearly a billion dollars? Should we be spending hard-earned tax dollars supporting and

02:36sponsoring a Afghan cricket team? Should we be putting a hundred thousand dollars towards sponsoring

02:42an Afghan cricket team? Is that the best use of the money? Is that what we're supposed to do with it?

02:47Or are we supposed to be telling America's story abroad? There's so much misuse of public dollars in

02:53this agency that it needs to be scrapped and we need to salvage what we can. But it's really like a rotten

02:58piece of fish. And you're looking at it and you're saying, is there anything we can pull out of here

03:02and eat? And it's best to just scrap the whole thing and start over. And I think that's the way

03:07we should go forward. That's my personal opinion. You know, you touched on something that's dear to

03:12my heart. I never forget in the actions that I take here that someone back home is working hard

03:19to pay the taxes, to put the light bill on and to make sure we have an office like this. And then we

03:25need to have the responsibility, the oversight, to make sure those dollars that are going to other

03:29countries and other places are being used efficiently and effectively. And so I really

03:35admire your approach to that. One last question. What do you really think? You know, I've heard

03:41you mention the social media and some of these other aspects. What do you think is our best

03:45way forward? Do we focus more on social media or do we? How's our best way forward for trying

03:51to communicate? You know, different countries have different ways and different access to different

03:57things. But but social media is becoming stronger all the time. So what's your opinion of that

04:02situation? I think we have to move further away from like I said, doing 1990s style television. I mean,

04:08you know, you look at President Trump communicates with the world with a simple tweet. And it's very

04:14effective. And hundreds of millions of people hear what he has to say. Joe Rogan, a one man show,

04:21reaches hundreds of millions of people. We don't need thousands of people to tell America's story.

04:27People are telling America's story on social media. We can do it, as I said, in a more nimble

04:31way and focus on on ways that we're telling it appropriately. And right now, as I said,

04:37the pro-Iranian regime coverage that's come out of this, the pro-CCP coverage has come out of

04:42Voice of America. This thing has gotten very rotten. And we've had pro-Russian coverage coming

04:49out. We've hired Russian spies. Radio Free Europe nearly hired 20 Russian spies, if not for being tipped

04:56off, they would have had 20 Russian spies working in that outlet. And God only knows what kind of

05:02damage they could have done. These things are a waste of money. They're spending money like there's no

05:06tomorrow. Salaries are out of control. The president of RFE makes more than $320,000, I believe. And then you

05:14add all the other leadership and these various grantees. This is a hard-earned taxpayer dollar. And I think

05:21about the people who are working hard and barely make ends meet. I think about the overnight truck

05:27driver who's doing the overnight shift. I think about the teacher who's working hard and barely

05:32has time to come home and spend time with their own kids. I think about the farmer in Iowa who's

05:38working long hours and having to pay the government tax dollars. And it's going toward, for God's sakes,

05:44a cricket team in Afghanistan, and it's going to hire spies. This is outrageous. And it's got to stop.

05:51And thank God for President Trump for having the courage to say. My time's up, and so I yield back.

05:58Chair now recognizes Representative Almo. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Lake, for being here.

06:04Since its founding to counter Nazi propaganda during World War II, Voice of America has been a beacon

06:09of free information and repressive countries. Voice of America's parent agency, the U.S.

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