During a House Oversight subcommittee meeting Wednesday, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) unleashed on DOGE chairwoman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for supporting the Trump administration’s desire to cut federally-funded media outlets National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System.
“Greene and other GOP members grilled the heads of NPR and PBS on allegations of perceived bias to determine whether to continue federal funding,” according to The Daily Beast.
“It should not be surprising that the president is doing everything possible to make it more difficult for the media to hold him accountable, and for the public to be informed about his reckless and illegal behavior — yet here we are,” Crockett began before asking the media leaders about how stripping their funding would hurt the public at large.
Witnesses included NPR CEO Katherine Maher, PBS CEO Paula Kerger, Heritage Foundation senior fellow Michael Gonzalez, and Alaska Public Radio president Ed Ulman.
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“Isn’t it true that without these stations’ broadcasts, Americans in rural communities would lack access to lifesaving information and public safety alerts?” Crockett asked Ulman, who answered in the affirmative.
Crockett continued, “In your opinion would eliminating funding for stations in rural America like WNGH, Channel 18, in the chairwoman’s district would hurt Americans?”
“It would hurt Americans, yes,” Ulman answered.
Crockett then launched into Greene, with whom she has a contentious working relationship.
“In fact, Georgia Public Broadcasting serves as the official distributor of evacuation route during state evacuations, and the chairwoman is here advocating to strip their funding. Look, the DOGE agenda isn’t about efficiency; it’s about breeding corruption at the expense of the safety of the American people, particularly rural and remote parts of the country. They don’t care about public safety. They don’t care about emergency management. They don’t care about free speech, all of which are harming the American people.”
Crockett continued, “To be clear, free speech is not about whatever it is y’all want somebody to say. And the idea that you want to shut down everybody that is not Fox News is bull—-. We need to stop playing because that’s what y’all are doing in here. You don’t you want to hear the opinions of anybody else.”
Crockett went on to read the First Amendment as Greene repeatedly banged the gavel and announced “the gentlelady’s time has expired.”
Watch the clip below or at this link.
