This Is the Most Ironic Thing About Who Biden Hired as His New Disinformation Czar
Nina Jankowicz, President Biden’s new disinformation czar, has herself been a purveyor of misleading information in the past.
SO WHAT
Who will police the truth police?
WHAT HAPPENED
Jankowicz, a former adviser to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center, confirmed Wednesday that she’d been tapped to serve as executive director of the Department of Homeland Security’s new Disinformation Governance Board.
Cat's out of the bag: here's what I've been up to the past two months, and why I've been a bit quiet on here.
Honored to be serving in the Biden Administration @DHSgov and helping shape our counter-disinformation efforts. https://t.co/uN20vl7qqV pic.twitter.com/JEn4FqLdck
— Nina Jankowicz 🇺🇦🇺🇸 (@wiczipedia) April 27, 2022
Hours earlier, during testimony before the House, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas cited the creation of the board in response to a question about how minority communities are being protected from reported misinformation campaigns.
- The purpose of the board is “to coordinate countering misinformation related to homeland security, focused specifically on irregular migration and Russia,” per Politico.
WHAT SHE’S SAID
As conservative critics were quick to note, Jankowicz has on several occasions made claims that could qualify as misinformation.
DECEMBER 2017: In a tweet replying to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Jankowicz claimed Republicans funded the since-discredited Steele dossier, which helped spark a national meltdown over President Trump’s nonexistent collusion with Russia.
Your party funded the dossier first… and if there was FBI and DOJ bias during 2016, it was certainly against Clinton. FBI was investigating Trump since summer but didn't make it public. American public deserved to know.
— Nina Jankowicz 🇺🇦🇺🇸 (@wiczipedia) December 8, 2017
Jankowicz was apparently referencing the fact that the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news site largely funded by Republican billionaire Paul Singer, hired Fusion GPS, the research firm that produced the Steele dossier.
- But the Free Beacon has said it “did not pay for the dossier, and never had contact with, knowledge of, or provided payment for any work performed by Christopher Steele.”
- Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee continued funding Fusion’s research after the Free Beacon lost interest, and it was that work that informed the Steele dossier.
OCTOBER 2020: Jankowicz warned during an appearance on CNN that armed Trump supporters might try to “to intimidate people” at the polls in the upcoming presidential election.
Nina Jankowicz, Biden's new Minister of Truth, a few weeks before the 2020 election: "I think there’s a general concern about Trump supporters potentially showing up armed to the polls…to intimidate people and 'watch.' And that’s very disturbing." pic.twitter.com/jaDkZI6x0a
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) April 28, 2022
OCTOBER 2020: Jankowicz dismissed the authenticity of a scandalous New York Post story about emails taken from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son.
- “We should view it as a Trump campaign product,” Jankowicz was quoted as saying in an Associated Press report downplaying the news.
- According to The AP, Jankowicz cited experts who claimed “there are multiple red flags” that raised doubts “about the authenticity of the emails including questions about whether the laptop actually belongs to Hunter Biden.”
- In April, national news outlets, including The New York Times, confirmed the accuracy of the Post’s reporting.
INTERESTING TIMING
On Monday, Twitter accepted Elon Musk’s $44 billion buyout offer, reigniting Democrats’ fears about misinformation on social media.
Here's my take on the world’s richest man buying Twitter:
He makes a great car and rocket.
But I’m concerned his personal views will stop the fight against disinformation on social media.
The problem on Twitter hasn't been too much content moderation – it's too much hate.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) April 27, 2022