Congressional Rumors Surrounding Rep. Stanton Resurface During Kari Lake Hearing
By Matthew Holloway |
Salacious past rumors surrounding Democrat Congressman Greg Stanton (D-AZ01) resurfaced Wednesday during Congressional testimony from Senior Advisor for the U.S. Agency for Global Media Kari Lake before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Lake’s testimony, entitled Spies, Lies, and Mismanagement: Examining the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s Downfall, laid out a devastating case against the agency that manages Voice of America (VOA) as well as the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Lake described an editorial firewall at the VOA, which prevents U.S. policymakers from influencing coverage yet allows foreign actors like the Chinese government to exert huge pressure. During her testimony, Lake also confronted Stanton with the prospect that VOA could potentially report on long-held rumors that the Congressman had a homosexual affair several years ago. In such an event, she explained, Stanton would be powerless to prevent the government news outlet from reporting the story he contends is false. In fact, he would be sued for even trying to.
According to VOA, “The firewall prohibits interference by any U.S. government official in the objective, independent reporting of news,” as per the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2017.
“Your job is to tell the people of the world the truth about America,” Stanton said. “And because of that, there is a more fundamental issue that I want to address today, and that is character.”
Under that thin veneer of justification, Stanton then followed with a lengthy tirade launching ad hominem attacks on Lake’s character, her truthfulness about elections, and openly accused her of lying about the conduct of both the Arizona and U.S. Presidential elections. Citing her legal battles following her gubernatorial and senatorial election defeats, the Arizona Congressman scorned Lake as “an adjudicated liar.”
Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Issa was compelled to intervene when Stanton accused Lake of being a “liar” and a “loser” and called upon the Congressman to adhere to the House rules of decorum.
Lake, finally able to answer when Stanton yielded his time back to the chair, replied, “That was complete insanity. Can I respond to that because that was complete insanity? I wish I could yield back the last five minutes of my life, and I want to apologize to the people of Arizona that we have somebody who’s representing the folks in one of our great parts of the Valley that doesn’t care about the integrity of our elections.”
Turning to address Stanton she continued, “But you weren’t here, you came in late, and we were talking about USAGM today, the Agency for Global Media, and how they can put out absolute, abject lies, and we can’t control any… We have no say over what the editorial content is, and I would hope that you would not be okay with that.”
Lake then made a personal appeal to Stanton, referencing a long-held rumor in Congress, the existence of which has been independently verified by AZ Free News.
“They could literally put out a lie about anybody here, and I know you’ve been a victim of that. I know you’ve been a victim. I remember the stories about you when they said you had a gay lover, and those were going out.”
“Mr. Chair,” Stanton burst out angrily. “I hope you honor what you just gave as a caution to everyone, and I move those words be stricken.”
Undeterred, Lake continued her point, “To tell you that those kind of lies, and you said they were lies, those kinds of lies can be broadcast today on VOA, and you can’t pick up the phone, Representative Stanton, and call them and say, ‘Hey, you’re putting out lies about me.’ You would not be able to do that because they would sue you for breaking the firewall.
“So, lies are being told on Voice of America; it’s inappropriate. You’ve been subjected to lies that you said were lies about you in the media before, and how would you like those lies were put on Voice in America right now? Because they could do it, and you couldn’t do a thing about it. You couldn’t stop it. You couldn’t stop all those lies that you said were said about you if they went on Voice of America today. You’d have to sit and take it.”
Chairman Issa ruled on Stanton’s request to strike Lake’s comments, noting that Lake “was responding and I thought rather complimentary. That in fact those were untrue and she was defending that. So, I’ll leave it as that. I think Mr. Stanton would agree that those were untrue statements, and she said so.”
Stanton, seeming to recover his composure, attempted to resume his attacks on Lake, again claiming Lake to be “an adjudicated liar,” only to be cut off by Chairman Issa.
Chairman Issa then reclaimed time for himself and appeared to admonish Stanton and the other Democrat members for their attacks against Lake saying, “I’ll be brief in saying if everyone on the dais had the accusations of their opponents or even quite frankly sometimes the legal battles, all of us would have a bad day here. That is part of politics. But we’re not here to discuss politics today. We’re here to discuss the spending of hundreds of millions of dollars and a question of whether or not it was best spent on behalf of the American people.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.