Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed Friday to challenge President Joe Biden’s proposed “Disinformation Governance Board,” comparing it to an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth.”
“You cannot have a Ministry of Truth in this country,” DeSantis said in remarks made Friday morning in Williston, Florida. “Let’s get real here. Let’s make sure we are doing things to benefit Floridians and Americans, but we’re not going to let Biden get away with this one. We will be fighting back.”
The governor compared Biden’s efforts to a war on conservatives protesting the “decaying and discredited ruling elite in this country,” according to Florida Politics, calling the Biden administration’s proposed board a “belated April Fool’s Joke” intended to “stifle dissent.”
“They want to be able to put out false narratives without people being able to speak out and fight back,” DeSantis continued. “They want to be able to say things like ‘Russian collusion’ and perpetuate hoaxes and have people like us be silenced.”
.@GovRonDeSantis Reacting To The Biden Administration’s “Ministry Of Truth” & Vowing To Take Action
“You cannot have a Ministry of Truth in this country.”
“We’re not going to let Biden get away with this one. So we will be fighting back.”
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) April 29, 2022
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the proposed Disinformation Governance Board only a few days after Elon Musk purchased Twitter, prompting a slew of Democrats and left-wing activists to express fears of censorship and potentially swayed elections.
Musk himself called the proposed board “discomforting” in a reply to conservative comedian Steven Crowder, who tweeted Thursday, “The government is creating a misinformation governance board. Who else did something like that? Oh I remember, the Nazi’s. And there’s some data showing some interesting things going on post-[Elon Musk]’s Twitter takeover!”
According to Politico, the board will be headed by Nina Jankowicz, who formerly worked as a disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center and will act as executive director.
Jankowicz previously referred to Hunter Biden’s laptop as a “Trump campaign product,” the Washington Examiner reported, suggesting that it was a “Russian influence op.”
Back on the "laptop from hell," apparently- Biden notes 50 former natsec officials and 5 former CIA heads that believe the laptop is a Russian influence op.
Trump says "Russia, Russia, Russia."
— Nina Jankowicz 🇺🇦🇺🇸 (@wiczipedia) October 23, 2020
She attempted to explain the tweet on Wednesday, tweeting that it was “simply a direct quote from both candidates during the final presidential debate.”
For those who believe this tweet is a key to all my views, it is simply a direct quote from both candidates during the final presidential debate. If you look at my timeline, you will see I was livetweeting that evening. https://t.co/nI7ZgBtTLC https://t.co/4DjBl9bzt0
— Nina Jankowicz 🇺🇦🇺🇸 (@wiczipedia) April 27, 2022
Jankowicz did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Wire.
“I really haven’t dug into this exactly,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday of the proposed board. “I mean, we, of course, support this effort, but let me see if I can get more specifics. We know that there has been a range of disinfo out there about a range of topics — I mean, including COVID, for example, and also elections and eligibility. But I will — I will check and see if there’s more specifics.”
“It sounds like the objective of the board is to prevent disinformation and misinformation from traveling around the country in a range of communities,” she continued. “I’m not sure who opposes that effort, and I don’t know who this individual is, so I have no comments on it specifically.”
Of Jankowicz, Psaki said: “I don’t have any information about this individual. I can check on more information about the board.”