Last week, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul went toe-to-toe with Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas over the freshly rolled out Disinformation Governance Board.
Paul was adamant about how the federal government should not be telling the American people what the truth is.
Most of Paul’s exchanges with Mayorkas dealt with the issue of effectiveness of cloth masks in tackling COVID-19. Many leading public health officials said these cloth masks were ineffective in fighting COVID-19. Nevertheless, the mask mandates continued going into effect in many schools nationwide and even public transportation. The mandates in the latter venues were eventually repealed.
“Are you going to put information out there saying that I’m spreading disinformation?” Paul inquired.
Mayorkas responded by noting that functionaries at the DHS “are not the public’s health experts to make those determinations.”
“So public health won’t be part of the Disinformation Governance Board? No COVID disinformation? Yes or no?” Paul said as he continued grilling Mayorkas.
Mayorkas did not respond and asserted that Paul was putting forward “vague” hypothetical situations. Paul defended his examples as being “very specific.”
The Kentucky senator took exception to Mayorkas’ belief that the government is capable of informing citizens and telling them the truth.
“I have a greater respect for the American people than you do. I think the American people can figure out the truth,” Paul declared. “And if you think the American people need to be told there’s not fentanyl in the vaccination, feel free to say it. But the thing is, is if you are going to go around saying that you’re the arbiter of information and of disinformation, I think you have no clue. And you don’t have the perspective of history knowing that disinformation, the largest progenitor of disinformation in our history, has probably been the U.S. government.”
“Do you know, the greatest propagator of disinformation in the history of the world is? The U.S. government,” Paul remarked. “Are you familiar with McNamara? The Pentagon Papers? Are you familiar with George W. Bush and the weapons of mass destruction? Are you familiar with Iran-contra?”
“I mean, think of all the debates and disputes we’ve had over the last 50 years in our country,” Paul added. “We worked them out by debating them. We don’t work them out by the government being the arbiter. I don’t want guardrails. I want you to have nothing to do with speech. You think we can’t determine, you know, speech by traffickers is disinformation. Do you think the American people are so stupid they need you to tell them what the truth is? You can’t even admit what the truth is with the Steele dossier. I don’t trust government to figure out what the truth is. Government is largely disseminating disinformation.”
“Do you know who the greatest propagator of disinformation in the history of the world is? The US government.”
Paul is correct in challenging Mayorkas. If there’s one thing that’s exceptional about the US government, it’s its ability to obfuscate its nefarious actions and keep the populace in the dark about it.
The new DGB is all about restricting free speech and limiting discourse.
In fact, a Revolver piece noted that the DGB aka the “Ministry of Truth” has plans of hiding immigration failures and labeling immigration patriots as “disinfo agents.” This entity’s mission to muzzle shut any form of dissident.
Conservative elected officials need to get serious about taking legislative action against the DGB. The enemy cannot be allowed to have breathing room and must be punished for its misbehavior.
