It was recently reported by ConservativeBrief that Rep. Lauren Boebert has stepped forward to lead a legislative effort against President Joe Biden’s planned Department of Homeland Security panel to combat alleged misinformation.
According to Fox News Digital, Boebert’s legislation would defund the “Disinformation Governance Board” and prevent the federal government from having any role in defining what truth is for the American people.
“This kind of stuff is terrifying. We in Congress have the power of the purse. It is our duty to shut down this department immediately,” Boebert told Fox News Digital Friday. “I’m calling on leadership in the Republican Party — Leader [Kevin] McCarthy, Whip [Steve] Scalise and others — to join me in calling for this department to be shut down and defunded.”
In a tweet on Friday, Boebert said halting the board was a “hill to die on.”
“I don’t think people are fully understanding the severity of what a Ministry of Truth organized by DHS truly means. This is Stalin level. This is Mao level. This is the hill to die on,” she wrote.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this week noted the creation of the Disinformation Governance Board which will “coordinate countering misinformation related to homeland security, focused specifically on irregular migration and Russia.”
DHS appointed Nina Jankowicz as executive director of the disinformation board though, as the Washington Examiner reported, she “has a history of sharing misleading claims about British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s discredited dossier and downplaying controversy embroiling President Joe Biden’s son.”
Fox News added:
Representatives for McCarthy did not immediately respond to whether he backs this bill or efforts to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, which Boebert also wants. Scalise supports Boebert’s bill.
Both Scalise and McCarthy recently signed onto a letter questioning Mayorkas’ suitability for office but didn’t specifically raise impeachment.
Most Republicans, who were already leery of censorship and shadow banning by big tech citing various platforms’ efforts to block the New York Post’s reporting regarding damning materials found on Hunter Biden’s laptop after Democrats called it “Russian disinformation” were particularly hostile to the creation of the new board.
“No tax dollars should go to where Biden can use the power of the federal government to silence truthful stories like Big Tech did with the Hunter Biden story,” Boebert said, going on to compare the agency to government surveillance from George Orwell’s “1984” novel.
“Democrats took that [book] not as a warning, but as a guide,” she said.
“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 Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) this week noted.
