Kari Lake, senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees such entities as Voice of America, told Newsmax on Wednesday that Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee were more interested in attacking her during a hearing earlier in the day than finding out the truth.
Lake got into a heated exchange with Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., who told Lake, "The American people cannot believe a word you say."
He criticized her long-held belief that her loss in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election was because of voter fraud — Lake lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs by 17,117 votes. Stanton said Lake blamed "everything under the sun for your loss except your own toxic politics."
"Unfortunately, Rep. Stanton spent his 5 minutes attacking me and going after elections and things like that, instead of being concerned about what was revealed in this hearing today," Lake told "Rob Schmitt Tonight."
"What was revealed was that over the years the VOA has been hiring a series of people who have questionable backgrounds doing shoddy background checks, hiring people from nations that are hostile to America, and employing spies at the agency, not to mention hiring Russian spies who put out anti-American propaganda and taking their editorial advice from the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] agents over at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C.
"Yet, they've managed to put up an editorial firewall, preventing management at the agency from even having a say in what goes out."
At the hearing, Lake raised a firestorm by using an example of how the VOA can put out lies "about anybody here."
"I know you've been the victim of that," Lake said to Stanton.
"I remember the stories about you, where they said you had a gay lover. … Those kinds of lies could be broadcast today on VOA, and you couldn't pick up the phone, Rep. Stanton, and call them and say, Hey, you're putting out lies about me.
"You would not be able to do that because they would sue you for breaking the firewall. So, lies are being told on Voice of America. It's inappropriate.
"You've been subjected to lies that you said were lies about you in the media before. And how would you like it if those lies were put on Voice of America right now?"
Lake emphasized to Newsmax that she was trying to point out to Stanton "that they can literally go completely rogue."
"They can do pro-CCP, pro-Iran regime, pro-Russian propaganda," Lake said. "And we have no way to control what they do. And that's a problem.
"They also have been misspending to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars of American taxpayer funding. We're funding things like Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, Middle East Broadcasting networks, and others, and the hardworking people of America want some accountability.
"Unfortunately, the Democrats on this committee didn't care that spies were being hired and anti-American messaging was going out across the globe. They only cared to try to come after me, and I wasn't having any of it."
Lake reportedly said last week the USAGM eliminated 1,400 positions, an 85% reduction in personnel, since March as part of President Donald Trump's executive order to shrink the federal workforce.
"I'm working hard to make sure that President Trump and his executive order asking me to boil this agency down and right-size it to what is statutorily required, the minimum required," Lake told Newsmax.
"I'm doing that. And he's called for the absolute elimination of this agency, which I think is correct, starting in October.
"And so, I was laying things out and sadly, the Democrats didn't care. They don't care if anti-American propaganda is going out across the globe at the taxpayer expense."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.