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Kari Lake isn’t backing down.
In blunt testimony before Congress Wednesday, Lake declared the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the $950 million agency for which she is the senior advisor overseeing Voice of America (VOA), is "rotten to the core" and on track to be gutted by 2026.
"This place is rotten. It’s rotten to the core," Lake told the House Oversight Committee. "President Trump has asked me to go in and help clean it up, and he’s also issued an executive order to reduce this agency down to its mandate, to what is mandated, statutorily required. That’s exactly what I’m doing. I don’t care if they attack me."
She’s not acting alone. Lake provided Fox News Digital with a letter from House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., demanding records on USAGM’s foreign hires, conflicts of interest and its handling of disinformation and national security.
Kari Lake, senior advisor to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, speaks during a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing Wednesday in Washington, D.C. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to say, "Why would a Republican want Democrat ‘mouthpiece,' Voice of America (VOA), to continue? It’s a TOTAL, LEFTWING DISASTER — No Republican should vote for its survival. KILL IT!"
Lake didn’t hold back in describing what she found within USAGM.
"It’s really like a rotten piece of fish," she said. "And you’re looking at it, and you’re saying, ‘Is there anything we can pull out of here and eat?’ And it’s best to just scrap the whole thing and start over."
She argued that instead of defending American values abroad, the federally funded national and international news agency had become compromised with hostile actors potentially influencing what gets broadcast on the U.S. taxpayer's dime.
"The [Chinese Communist Party] has more control over what we put out editorially than people who are management at the agency," Lake said. "Are any of these VOA employees who acted on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party ... still employed? It’s possible. We’re working to try to figure that out."
She accused the grantees — including VOA, Radio Free Asia and the Open Technology Fund — of resisting oversight and stonewalling basic financial reviews.
Kari Lake, senior advisor to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, holds up a photograph she says shows an empty Voice of America newsroom during a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing Wednesday in Washington, D.C. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
"Nearly $400 million, the hard-earned taxpayer dollars of hard-working American people, are going to these grantees, and they’ve stonewalled us from getting any information until the eleventh hour," Lake said. "Finally, last night, knowing I would be sitting here, they finally agreed to say, ‘Oh, we’ll let you look at our books now.’ It’s a joke what’s going on."
Lake found no shortage of support from Republicans on the committee, including Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who said the agency should’ve been shut down years ago.
"We might as well be riding a Model T down the middle of the street. It might be ... it looks good, and it brings back old memories, but, dadgum, it’s not very efficient," Burchett said.
Lake agreed, adding, "It’s a relic."
Democrats accused Lake of dismantling a strategic asset and repeating anti-VOA rhetoric similar to that used by China.
Kari Lake, senior advisor to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, speaks during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., said, "You just want to reduce it to its statutory minimum. And then you said … that it will be gone by 2026. You want it gone. The president wants it gone by 2026. ... You’re a propaganda machine for the Trump administration."
Dean said she had "no questions" for Lake, adding, "You have misled this committee. ... You’ve lost your credibility. You have poured it out in buckets."
Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Texas, claimed layoffs would "cede all of our soft power in the world to our adversaries," arguing, "354 million people listen to [VOA] every week."
Lake replied bluntly, "Those are government numbers. And I don’t trust those numbers."
Johnson shot back, "That’s a sad state of affairs when you don’t trust the government that you’re representing."
Lake defended the cuts, saying they follow the law and common sense.
"We are doing what is statutorily required," she said. "The statutory minimum President Trump put forth in his executive order ... and that’s what we’re going to do."
Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., expressed concern that cutting grantee staff could weaken U.S. influence in hot spots like Iran and North Korea.
"We can do it with a smaller staff.," Lake replied. "This newsroom should have been downsized a long time ago. … It’s over. Too many people were working in the newsroom, and we’ve shrunk that down."
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She added that many grantee roles were redundant.
"Why do we need RFA to be doing a Mandarin news service when we at VOA are doing Mandarin?" Lake said.
Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., closed with a comparison. iHeartMedia runs a national operation at $90 million per year. USAGM’s budget? Nearly $1 billion.
Lake’s closing message was direct.
"We can do this smarter, leaner and with loyalty to American values," she said.
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