Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claimed that the recently announced “Disinformation Governance Board” that will be housed within his department will not monitor U.S. citizens.
The New York Post reported that Mayorkas made these claims on Sunday while defending the agency’s “eminently qualified” czar — Nina Jankowicz — who has been intensely criticized for hyper partisan worldview and questionable antics.
Mayorkas defended Jankowicz from questions by conservatives over her ability to fairly and accurately root out disinformation when she herself amplified disinformation that was favorable to the American political left and the Democratic Party. Jankowicz previously attempted to discredit the now authenticated and verified reporting by the New York Post in October 2020 on Hunter Biden’s laptop as disinformation.
Jankowicz also, at one point, heaped praise on Christopher Steele, the man who authored the discredit dossier that served as the basis for the thoroughly disproven Trump-Russia collusion hoax, Fox News reported.
Jankowicz was also widely mocked online for posting a TikTok video of herself singing a rendition of the song “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” focusing on the alleged proliferation of disinformation online.
While appearing on “Fox News Sunday” with Bret Baier, Mayorkas said that he had no reservations about Jankowicz’s ability to perform her new role objectively and effectively.
Mayorkas said, “I don’t question her objectivity. There are people in the department who have a diverse range of views and they’re incredibly dedicated to mission. We’re not the opinion police.”
When discussing with CNN whether everyday Americans will end up being surveilled by the disinformation board, Dana Bash said, “It’s still not clear to me how this governance board will act and what it will do.”
Mayorkas replied, “So what it does is it works to ensure that the way in which we address threats, the connectivity between threats and acts of violence, are addressed without infringing on free speech, protecting civil rights and civil liberties, the right of privacy.”
He continued, “What it will do is gather together best practices in addressing the threat of disinformation from foreign state adversaries from the cartels and disseminate those best practices to the operators that have been executing in addressing this threat for years.”