Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he takes responsibility for picking Nina Jankowicz to lead his new disinformation board, but he said he was not aware of her previous comments that seemed to be disinformation itself.
Mr. Mayorkas refused to say who, exactly, picked Ms. Jankowicz for the role, but said it falls on him as the department chief.
“Ultimately as the secretary I am responsible,” he said.
He also assured lawmakers that Ms. Jankowicz was a “subject matter expert.”
“Yeah, I can tell,” said Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican who pointed to Ms. Jankowicz’s past comments spreading what now seems to be misinformation.
Mr. Mayorkas has found himself on defense over the board, whose existence has struck fear into the hearts of Republicans across the country. Many have taken to calling the board a “Ministry of Truth” and say they expect it will become a speech police.
The secretary repeatedly rejected those suggestions, and said the board — which he now calls a “working group” — is going to police the department itself to make sure employees are respecting free speech rights.
“The working group does not have operational capacity and authority. It is to make sure there are policies in place, standards in place, to protect the very rights about which you inquired,” he told Mr. Kennedy.
He said the board doesn’t have a separate budget and its chief activity is to develop internal standards and share best practices within the department.
“We’ve been doing the disinformation work for years but what we haven’t had is sufficient standards and policies in place, and harmonized efforts,” Mr. Mayorkas said.
Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, said the greatest spreader of disinformation throughout history has been the U.S. government. He pointed to the Pentagon Papers, Iran-Contra and President George W. Bush’s claims of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Mr. Paul said those examples should show the difficulties in tasking a government body with flagging disinformation.
“I don’t want guardrails. I want you to have nothing to do with speech,” he said.
Republicans said Mr. Mayorkas should fire Ms. Jankowicz, who in past comments has questioned the underpinnings of free speech, promoted the now-discredited anti-Trump Steele dossier, and cast doubt on the now-verified Hunter Biden laptop.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, West Virginia Republican, said Mr. Mayorkas himself might run afoul of disinformation restrictions because of his claim that the southern border is under “operational control.”
“Is that definitionally misinformation?” she wondered.
“Now is a good time to abandon this ludicrous and much-maligned idea,” she said.
Mr. Mayorkas said he did a poor job of rolling out the new board, which he revealed to Congress last week, though it had been operational for several months.
Ms. Capito said calling it a “disinformation board” was part of the fear, and she said it was good to hear him downgrade the panel to a “working group.” Mr. Mayorkas said that’s what it was always going to be.
“We can discuss the nomenclature, but the point is the work is so very important to achieving the mission in a way that does not infringe on free speech,” he said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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