Tipsheet

Gov. Ron DeSantis Leading the Way on Speaking Out on Another Issue: Disinformation

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  April 29, 2022 9:20 PM

Earlier this week, it was revealed that the Department of Homeland Security will focus on "countering misinformation" through a Disinformation Governance Board. It's not merely the creation of the board that's chilling, but who is serving as the executive director: Nina Jankowicz. In addition to her tweeting about Hunter Biden's laptop being a matter of "Russian influence," she has a whole collection of problematic social media posts, some of which Leah highlighted earlier on Friday. Republicans are fighting back, though, chief among them Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.

During a Friday press conference, DeSantis pointed out that the board seemed more suited as an April Fool's joke. 

"As if they don't have enough issues to deal with, they now have an idea, and I honestly thought this was just a belated April Fool's joke, but they are actually going to create, in the Department of Homeland Security, a bureau of disinformation. It's basically a Ministry of Truth," DeSantis said. "And what they want to do is they want to be able to put out false narratives without people being able to speak up and fight back. They want to be able to say things like 'Russia Collusion' and, and perpetuate hoaxes, and then have people like us be silenced. They want to be able to advocate for COVID lockdowns. They want to be able to advocate for school closures, things that are not supported by the evidence, but then when you speak out, they want to stifle dissent. So we reject this bureau in the state of Florida," the governor emphasized.

"Ministry of Truth" has been trending over Twitter for days, as DeSantis was far from the only person to draw the comparison. 

DeSantis' press secretary, Christina Pushaw, was among those who have also highlighted concerns with Jankowicz. 

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She also has DeSantis' remarks as a pinned tweet for her personal account, along with a longer clip of the governor's remarks. 

Columnist and comedian Tim Young has tweeted extensively about the board, including for much of Friday. 

This included a tweet on DeSantis' response, and a call for Republicans in Congress to speak out in a similar manner.

When it comes to a response at that level, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) shared a statement with The Daily Wire in which he called for Biden to "immediately abandon" the board. 

"Leave it to Democrats to think free speech is the problem and more government is the solution. The notion that the same party that spent four years promoting the Russia collusion hoax, suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop story, and equated parents to domestic terrorists believes it has the credibility to tell Americans what is true is laughable," McCarthy said. 

"And it is telling that the person who would run Biden’s Orwellian Disinformation Governance Board is a political activist who has a long history of falling for and spreading disinformation," he continued. "It is easy to imagine this person abusing the term ‘disinformation’ to suppress facts and spin away inconvenient truths about the administration’s many failures, including their failures to secure the border. The idea that the federal government should control speech sounds uncomfortably close to the Thought Police. Biden must immediately abandon his plan to create a modern-day Ministry of Truth."