During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing in June, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) spoke about Kari Lake's role in the Trump Administration's dismantling of the United States Agency for Global Media.
00:00Mr. Chairman and Ms. Lake I thank you for joining us today. First I'd like to address President
00:06Trump's recent strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, an action taken without consulting the committee
00:12or securing congressional authorization and it's troubling that Secretary Rubio is not sitting
00:17here today and that Republican members are avoiding oversight on such grave matters of war
00:23and peace that falls squarely on this committee's jurisdiction. Instead as this title shows this
00:31hearing's title shows we're returning to House Republicans fixation on a far on far-fetched
00:37conspiracies this time to tear down the U.S. Agency for Global Media and the important work it supports.
00:45This tracks with President Trump's broad record of denigrating federal agencies and appointing
00:51leaders that far from shepherding their agencies to success are stewards of their sabotage and I
00:58believe Ms. Lake you fall into this category. The story of the United States Agency for Global Media
01:05began with the voice of America countering Nazi propaganda. That mission endured through the
01:11Cold War and continues today. USAGM is mandated to reach heavily censored countries with trusted
01:19information because Congress recognized that factual reporting contributes to international peace and
01:25stability and is in the interest of the United States of America. The irony that USAGM is now being undone
01:34under a banner of disinformation is not lost on me. Worse, some Republicans wanted to be transformed into
01:42every propaganda machine we oppose abroad. The Trump administration short-sighted dismantling of USAGM
01:51echoes its attacks on the U.S. Agency for International Development spinning false narratives about corruption and
01:58waste to dismantle effective institutions Congress established with bipartisan support. Ms. Lake, if it was your goal at
02:08USAGM to use falsehood to advance an agenda, I believe then you're qualified for this job. Your opening statement as I read is full of false narratives aided by Republicans on this committee who still refuse to release their own investigation transcripts.
02:26So Mr. Chairman, if your findings are solid, release those transcripts now. The taxpayers who funded this work deserve transparency, not cherry-picked quotes that suit
02:38suit your sham narrative. And again, I ask that the transcripts, all of them, be made publicly so that the public can read and see everything, not cherry-picked sentences.
02:53Before it was, before two was fed into the wood chipper, USAGM and its broadcasters were reaching a record 427 million people weekly, delivering objective news to China, Iran, Russia, and other reporters.
03:07Last year, VOA's Persian service recorded 223 million visits to its website, doubling over four years. It had 9.8 million social media followers and 1.8 billion Instagram views.
03:23Then, Ms. Lake, you put VOA Persian on leave in March, scrambled to restore it in June, when war erupted, and inexplicably, a week later, announced mass firings. So the question is, which is it? Is USAGM and the work it supports unsalvageable waste, as you have said, or is it a critical tool for diplomacy and facts?
03:50What you are doing isn't efficiency, it's chaos. The dysfunction lies in the administration's allergy to truth and democracy, the two pillars that USAGM aims to promote abroad.
04:03So I'm not surprised by the choice to gut USAGM since the first Trump administration targeted the enterprise, violating laws and journalistic integrity to shape it into a state media, like Russia's or North Korea's.
04:21Today, those regimes are actually cheering as we surrender another potent set of soft power tools and abandon the airwaves.
04:33The Trump administration, again, chose extremism over facts, tearing down rather than building up our information advantage.
04:43Will Congress defend USAGM and free media or rubber stamp this capitulation to China, Russia, and Iran?
04:54Our adversaries are already filling the void. But it's not too late to savage USAGM. Not from itself, as Ms. Lake says, but from this administration's short-sighted hatchet job.
05:13With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
05:15I thank the ranking member for his comments. I'd say be careful what you wish for. Ms. Lake has provided binders and binders of information that have been included in her opening statement, so they are in the official record.
