Congressional Republicans Killed the Global Engagement Center

Why? Because Biden's Propaganda Bureaucrats Turned It on America's Conservatives

By Chuck Warren

This week, Republicans in Congress killed a very important State Department program—and they were right to do it.

The Global Engagement Center was created in 2016, and it was responsible for combating foreign disinformation. This is a very important issue.

Disinformation has been a cheap way for our enemies to turn public opinion in the developing world against us. China, Russia, and Iran used broadcast and social media to lie about America and make themselves look good. They also use the same tactics in democratic countries to discredit U.S. foreign policy.

For example, China launched the Belt and Road News Network in 2019 to shape public opinion in Latin America and Asia. In 2023, it reached an agreement with the socialist administration in Brazil to co-produce TV and cinematic content.

China also pays social media influencers to improve its image and attack America.

By doing this, China has managed to suppress reports and even lie about its Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang. Instead, it is lying that Israel is conducting a genocide in Gaza supported and funded by America.

This way, China is trying to reduce our influence in countries like Brazil and Honduras in our own neighborhood, as well as Arab countries in the Middle East and Asian countries. China’s state TV, Xinhua, broadcasts in Australia, Bangladesh, Belarus, India, Italy, Nigeria, and Vietnam.

Russia and Iran do the same thing.

Russian propaganda is especially present in Eastern Europe. For example, a part of Moldova has been occupied by Russia since the 1990s, and it has been struggling with corruption promoted by Russia. In 2020, Moldova elected a pro-America president, Maia Sandu. She was educated in the U.S. and has been changing the direction of the country, getting rid of its corruption, and bringing it closer to us. It’s a huge American win!

She was up for reelection last year, and she just barely won it. A key reason was that most Moldovans speak Russian, and Russia has been using propaganda to turn them against America and their president.

Romania is another recent example. Its recent presidential election has been mired in controversy because of Russian disinformation, including lies about how America is trying to start a nuclear war in Europe—which is even more ridiculous when you realize that Joe Biden, who is scared of fighting drug cartels in Mexico, would be the one starting a nuclear war!

Similarly, Iran uses social media and television to recruit members for its proxies in the region, lie about America and Israel, and undermine governments allied with us so it can capture those states. And not just in the Middle East. Iran’s HispanTV broadcasts in countries like Argentina, which has a sizable Jewish population, and once aired a documentary claiming that Israel plans to annex parts of Argentina! Of course, with America’s assistance.

There is so much of this going on, and doing nothing only allows our enemies to poison the minds of peoples in the rest of the world against us.

They are playing the long game. Eventually, the effects of such propaganda will come to the surface. Those countries will sever business ties with us. Worse, we have military bases in many of them, and they might try to kick our military out—and welcome Chinese or Russian militaries in.

The job of the Global Engagement Center was to expose these lies, a very important task. So why did Republicans kill it?

The Biden administration decided to contract this out to a private firm, Soros-backed Global Disinformation Index. A very liberal firm with a clear political objective.

The Washington Times reported this firm also advises advertising companies, such as Microsoft’s Xandr, on which organizations not to sell ads to.

And you guessed it right: About every American conservative organization that is prominent is on it.

The problem was not that the Global Engagement Center was a bad idea. The problem was that Democrats were paying a left-wing, Soros-backed organization to do the job, and that organization was meanwhile targeting American conservatives.

This leaves us in a very bad place. America cannot cede the information ground to its enemies, but it can’t also turn it into a left-wing operation that treats conservatives and China all the same.

Congress was right to create the office, and it was right to kill it too. The first failed experiment should guide Congress to recreate it so that Democrats cannot abuse it again, including strict guardrails such as that this job can’t be contracted out to a foreign firm, and it should be done by the U.S. government and the State Department directly.

But let me end with this: We can’t afford to let evil regimes like China, Russia, and Iran lie to the world about us and themselves. We must push back—we just shouldn’t hire a left-wing British firm to push back for us!

Note: the opinions expressed herein are those of Chuck Warren only and not his co-host Sam Stone or Breaking Battlegrounds’ staff.