President-elect Donald Trump introduced Wednesday that he has tapped Kari Lake as director of the government-funded Voice of America, the nation’s largest worldwide broadcaster.
The transfer comes after the 55-year-old Lake misplaced her Arizona Senate bid to Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego in November.
“She can be appointed by, and work intently with, our subsequent head of the U.S. Company for International Media, who I’ll announce quickly,” Trump mentioned in a publish to his Fact Social platform.
Lake, a former longtime TV information anchor in Phoenix, is a fierce Trump loyalist who additionally misplaced her marketing campaign for Arizona governor in 2022. Throughout her campaigns, she typically echoed Trump’s false claims concerning the 2020 election.
Anita Pouchard Serra/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures
Voice of America, which is a part of the U.S. Company for International Media, broadcasts information internationally in 49 languages on radio, tv and on-line to an viewers of an estimated 354 million folks per week, in line with its web site.
It first started broadcasting in 1942. It has about 2,000 staff and an annual finances of roughly $260 million. USAGM is taken into account an impartial federal company.
In a social media publish Wednesday night time, Lake wrote that she was “honored” to have been tabbed for the function, including that “below my management, the VOA will excel in its mission: chronicling America’s achievements worldwide.”
Lake’s appointment should nonetheless be confirmed by the Senate.
Throughout Trump’s first time period in 2020, USAGM’s editorial independence got here into query after Trump named Michael Pack — a conservative filmmaker and shut ally of one-time Trump adviser Steve Bannon — its CEO.
Pack subsequently made the choice to not renew the visas of 10 VOA journalists and dozens of others who work at networks below USAGM, growing issues by members of Congress and the worldwide group alike over the potential of diminished editorial independence of the VOA information outlet.
John Lippman is at the moment the appearing director of VOA, a publish he is held since October 2023, whereas Amanda Bennett is CEO of USAGM.
Margaret Brennan
contributed to this report.
