WASHINGTON, DC — This week, Rep. Andrew Clyde (GA-09) penned an op-ed in the Washington Examiner detailing his grave concerns about the Biden Administration’s new Disinformation Governance Board.

 

Read the full op-ed below or in the Washington Examiner HERE.

 

 

News of President Joe Biden's Disinformation Governance Board quickly spread across the country like wildfire, rightfully stoking concern and criticism. Troublingly housed under the Department of Homeland Security, this panel would supposedly combat "disinformation" related to Russia and "irregular migration" — more commonly known as the crisis that has plagued our southern border with more than 2.4 million encounters with illegal immigrants.

 

The Biden administration's Disinformation Governance Board deserves the comparison to the Ministry of Truth, a dystopian institution designed to disseminate propaganda and rewrite history, in George Orwell's 1984.

 

It's obviously too late now, but someone should have reminded Biden that 1984 was written as a warning, not a manifesto.

 

Instead of heeding lawmakers' advice and immediately quashing the board, the Biden administration defended the deranged idea for weeks, fanning the flames of the public's anxieties. Remarkably, former press secretary Jen Psaki displayed disbelief that anyone would oppose the tyrannical task force.

 

Well, I sure do, and so does the Constitution.

 

Furthermore, after Biden weaponized both the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security against Americans practicing their First Amendment rights, revelations about the Biden administration's censoring apparatus sounded alarm bells and raised legitimate questions. While the alleged focus of the board was Russia and the southern border, it's naive to believe the administration would ever be constrained to these issues. By constructing his Ministry of Truth under the DHS, Biden artfully created the cloak with which to conceal additional operations under the cover of national security. With this intentional blueprint, facts or beliefs that failed to fit the Left's narrative would inevitably have faced the predictable consequences of Biden's truth police.

 

Don't believe me? Just take a look at the political operative the Biden administration originally selected as the board's executive director, Nina Jankowicz.

 

By now, you've likely seen bizarre TikToks of Jankowicz belting out left-wing parodies of show tunes. As odd and insufferable as her Broadway theatrics are, I'm far more troubled by her partisan history of spreading left-wing lies. Having promoted the Russia collusion hoax and pushed the false story that Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation, Nina Jankowicz has no credibility as an arbiter of truth.

 

In response to questions about her previous comments, the White House comically touted Jankowicz as "an expert on online disinformation." She's surely an expert, just not in the way they're claiming.

 

But it appears DHS will no longer benefit from her problematic proficiency at sowing disinformation after all.

 

Following weeks of consistent (and warranted) criticism, Jankowicz recently resigned from her post as the Minister of Truth, and the Biden administration is reportedly pausing the controversial panel. There's no question that this news is a tremendous victory for truth and free speech, but I strongly believe Congress must remain vigilant against the Biden administration's vicious assault on people's First Amendment rights. In fact, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has tapped former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff and former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick to review the board through the Homeland Security Advisory Council.

 

Despite being charged with cleaning up the scandalous task force, Chertoff has his own messy past to grapple with, which indicates additional headaches for the Biden administration. But even if the administration appointed a less controversial figure who remotely resembled someone capable of working in an apolitical manner, the initial plan to install the Disinformation Governance Board should still terrify everyone.

 

And this fight is likely far from over, considering that Mayorkas has requested a final recommendation concerning the board's future within 75 days.

 

Russia, China, and North Korea unquestionably excel at monitoring, countering, and erasing individuals' discourse, but this Orwellian nightmare is antithetical to the values, principles, and freedoms upon which our great nation was founded. The First Amendment right to the freedom of speech does not come with contingencies, footnotes, or a delete button; it is absolute.

 

Dictating truth opens the floodgates of opportunities for the federal government to infringe on Americans' constitutional right to articulate information, debate ideas, and express opinions freely. While the president and his allies defended their imperious Disinformation Governance Board before suspending the catastrophe, the people always understood the perils of following such a path.

 

As the future of Biden's dystopian panel hangs in the balance, the choice moving forward is quite simple: Freedom of speech or tyrannical "truth"? Biden will likely continue his attempts to bludgeon our nation with his "truth," but we, the people, will certainly continue to choose free speech.