Biden ‘minisTry of TruTh’ sparks mockery
For millions of taxpayer dollars, the Biden administration has decided it needs a “Disinformation Governance Board” to counter what it calls online lies about subjects like elections, government, COVID and immigration. Vicious lies such as: Joe Biden is old. Kamala Harris has COVID.
Jen Psaki doesn’t always tell the truth.
Thousands of migrants are streaming across the Mexican border illegally.
Biden has never been to the border as president.
So, you can see how tough a job this new “Ministry of Truth” — as critics have already dubbed it — has to tackle.
The board is led by socalled Russian misinformation “expert” Nina Jankowicz, who herself has spread disinformation online about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
And a cringey TikTok video has surfaced of Jankowicz doing a rhyming take of Mary Poppins’s “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” on misinformation.
“Information laundering is really quite ferocious. It’s when a huckster takes some lies and makes them sound precocious, by saying them in Congress or a mainstream outlet, so disinformation’s origins are slightly less atrocious,” she sang. “They’re laundering disinfo, and we should really take note. And not support their lies with our wallet, voice or vote.”
Yikes.
“This is Biden’s Minister of Truth…” Senator Ted Cruz tweeted, with a link to the video.
The “Ministry of Truth” was a department in George Orwell’s novel about the future, 1984. Its job was to correct the historical record to align with the views of “Big Brother.”
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the board will “protect privacy, civil rights and civil liberties.”
“The spread of disinformation can affect border security, Americans’ safety and public trust in our democratic institutions,” the statement said.
Republicans have immediately pounced on Jankowicz and the creation of the board as an Orwellian
maneuver designed to quash Americans’ freedom of speech.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely 2024 candidate for president, said Jankowicz’s appointment was “not acceptable.”
“The federal government has no business creating a
Ministry of Truth,” Sen. Tom Cotton wrote. “The Department of Homeland Security’s ‘Disinformation Board’ is unconstitutional and un-American, and I’ll be introducing a bill to defund it.”
U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia said he was
“demanding Congress investigate DHS’ Ministry of Truth — NOW.”
Psaki on Wednesday wouldn’t divulge details about what the disinformation board will be doing, except to say it would monitor online spread of misinformation on subjects like
elections and COVID.
“I’m not sure who opposes that effort,” Psaki said.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Congress on Wednesday that the board is also concerned about the spread of disinformation in minority communities ahead of the 2022 election.