By Peter Valencia | Arizona's Family
Washington, D.C. (AZFamily) — A heated exchange unfolded between two Arizona political figures during a U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on Wednesday.
The three-hour meeting, entitled “Spies, Lies, and Mismanagement: Examining the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s Downfall,” led to a feud between Republican Kari Lake, senior advisor for the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), and Congressman Greg Stanton.
“The American people cannot believe a word you say. You ran for governor of Arizona in 2022. You lost fair and square. Instead of conceding, you embarrassed yourself and our state by lying again and again for years. Blaming everything under the sun for your loss except for your own toxic politics,” Rep. Stanton said. “You lie about that election to this very day,” later calling her claims “total BS.”
During the meeting, the Democratic lawmaker continued to discuss Lake’s two election losses: her 2022 run for governor and her 2024 campaign for U.S. Senate.
At one point, Stanton continued grilling Lake and asked if she was “finally ready to admit you lost the 2022 Arizona election.” Lake replied, “It saddens me that you are from Arizona.”
During the hearing, Lake also told Stanton: “They could literally put out a lie about anything here. And I know you’ve been the victim of that. At that point, she refers to a reported fabricated story about the lawmaker before continuing her concerns about USAGM.
“Those kinds of lies could be broadcast today on VOA and you couldn’t pick up the phone Rep. Stanton and say ‘hey, you’re putting out lies about me...’ They’d sue you for breaking the firewall.”
The former TV news anchor claimed VOA was not promoting American ideals and defended the gutting of 85% of USAGM, eliminating approximately 1,400 jobs.
Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order detailing that “taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda.” CNN reported that at that time, Lake said she would modernize the agency “into something the American people are willing to support.”
According to Politico, Lake had previously said in a memo that her testimony in Congress would expose “waste, mismanagement, and national security failures.”
At one point during the meeting, she showed a photo of an empty newsroom that she says was taken before the layoffs, adding that “nobody was showing up for work.”
During the meeting, Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett applauded Lake’s efforts at the agency: “I want to thank you ma’am for what you’re doing. You clearly have a record of going after political hacks, and I salute you for that.”
Lake vowed to continue making changes she sees fit at VOA and acknowledged the staffing cuts, stating she doesn’t like the idea of people losing their jobs but admits, “In the media landscape, newsrooms are getting smaller.”