OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden’s pick to head the Department of Homeland Security’s new Disinformation Governance Board once had issues with the Executive Branch claiming power over what is and isn’t “truth.”
In a video posted online on Friday from two years ago, Nina Jankowicz expressed a great deal of discomfort with the White House having any power at all over speech when Donald Trump was president.
The Daily Wire reports:
A number of past comments, tweets, and videos of Jankowicz began to surface after it was announced that she was to lead the newest federal entity — which will endeavor to “counter the spread of false information” — and those comments raised questions as to whether or not she would do so with equal measure without imposing her own political views.
But perhaps the most eye-opening video of them all came from May of 2020, when she argued that the executive branch — then occupied by former President Donald Trump — should not have the power to determine what information was true and what was not.
“Imagine that, you know, with President Trump right now calling all of these news organizations that have — inconvenient for him — stories that they’re getting out there, that he’s calling ‘fake news,’ and now lashing out at platforms,” Jankowicz said.
“I would never want to see our executive branch have that sort of power, and that’s why, you know, the legislative process, with our duly elected officials is really important. That sort of consultative rule-making process. We can’t just govern by executive order anymore,” she added.
WATCH:
May, 2020. Nina Jankowicz was horrified at the idea of the Executive Branch (Trump) having any say in what is true or false.
She uses Poland’s “Ministry of Digitalization” as an example of “anti-democratic online governance”.
She also admits to being funded by Facebook. pic.twitter.com/5XoptnuMpJ
— Maze (@mazemoore) April 29, 2022
However, based on published reports and remarks from DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the planned board she has been chosen to head up does exactly that, The Daily Wire noted, adding that Jankowicz would report to Mayorkas and he reports directly to the president.
Several lawmakers have already expressed alarm over the creation of the board, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a former state attorney general.
“I write with deep concern about the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to create a new Disinformation Governance Board. I confess, I at first thought this announcement was satire. Surely no American Administration would ever use the power of Government to sit in judgment on the First Amendment speech of its own citizens,” a letter to DHS from the senator began.
“Sadly, I was mistaken. Rather than protecting our border or the American Homeland, you have chosen to make policing Americans’ speech your priority. This new board is almost certainly unconstitutional and should be dissolved immediately,” he added.
Also, others have sounded off about the ‘disinfo’ board, including Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, who warned during his Thursday program it would be used to silence or persecute political opponents of the Biden administration.
“Joe Biden cannot continue to control this country if you have free access to information. It’s that simple. Biden certainly is not improving your life. He is not even trying to improve your life. So the best he can do is lie to you and demand that you believe it,” Carlson said.
“But to do that, he needs to make certain that nobody else can talk because if you were to hear the truth, you might not obey. How is Biden going to pull that off? It’s not easy,” he noted further.
“Well, one option would be to get men with guns to tell you to shut up. Most Americans probably haven’t thought of that because this isn’t Africa or Eastern Europe, this is America, and we don’t do things like that here and never have more precisely, we haven’t until now,” Carlson continued. “But now, Joe Biden is President and everything is different.
“So today, to herald the coming of the new Soviet America, the administration announced its own Ministry of Truth. This will be called the Disinformation Governance Board. Laugh if you want but just to show you they’re not kidding around here, this board is not part of the State Department or any other agency focused on foreign threats from abroad. No,” the host noted.
Later, he declared: “Just to be clear, this is a nightmare unfolding in slow motion, but this is the point where we’re just going to have to draw the line. No, Joe Biden, you can’t have a federally funded Ministry of Truth and no, Nina Jankowicz can’t run it. Period.”
