Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) slammed the new Disinformation Governance Board on Fox News. “[W]e arrive at the truth through disputation,” Paul said during the interview. “Anybody who says we can do it by edict is somebody completely unaware of the idea and the concept of freedom of speech.”
Paul told Fox host Jesse Waters his plan to shut down the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) new Orwellian Disinformation Governance Board (DGB). Paul also discussed National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director Dr. Anthony Fauci’s words and actions as an example of why government bureaucrats cannot be trusted to decide the truth.
When Waters asked what Paul planned to do about the DGB the senator responded bluntly. “We’re going to shut it down,” he said. Paul noted that he is collecting signatures from other senators for this purpose, and hopes to get a vote about defunding the board. “So much for the marketplace of ideas,” Paul said. “They have decided that they’re going to determine what disinformation is.”
Paul pointed out that the federal government spent millions on an investigation that falsely accused former President Donald Trump of colluding with Russia. If they can’t admit that that’s disinformation – it was propagated by CNN for years and years … how could they possibly do the job of policing disinformation?”
In fact, Paul said, he does not support anyone policing information. “Even if you could [do it], and they admitted that it was disinformation, I’d be against policing CNN. People can turn the channel.” The senator said the public can filter its own information.
Waters played a recent clip of Fauci condemning the “normalization of untruths.” Paul responded, “[I]t’s the same argument as the disinformation board, ‘we have to decide what is true and what is not true.’” The senator listed some statements Fauci made that got discredited after he spoke them, including the effectiveness of masking. “I think that Doctor Fauci has promulgated untruth,” Paul said. ”He has normalized untruth.”
Paul gave several examples.
“[Fauci said] booster vaccines should be given to adolescents. There’s now a significant amount of scientific data and studies, including large, multimillion-person studies, showing that you have an increased risk for an inflammation of the heart the more vaccines you give young people,” Paul said. “We combine that with the fact that seventy-five percent of young people have already been infected. He discounts this completely.”
The senator brought the discussion of Fauci full circle. “The biggest purveyor, I think, of untruths right now in public health is Doctor Fauci. So when someone says, ‘we’re going to stop disinformation’—well, they can’t even agree to what the truth is.”
Public debate is essential, according to Paul. “Scientists debate, journalists debate, politicians debate—we arrive at the truth through disputation,” he said. “Anybody who says we can do it by edict is somebody completely unaware of the idea and the concept of freedom of speech.”
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