'Rotten to the core': Kari Lake compares her own agency to spoiled fish

Kari Lake didn’t mince words Wednesday as she ripped into the U.S. Agency for Global Media – calling the bureau she leads as senior advisor “rotten to the core” in heated testimony on Capitol Hill – and defending the president’s aggressive plan to gut the $950 million operation by 2026.

Lake, who Donald Trump tapped to oversee the agency’s overhaul, said the news agency strayed far from its mission and has become overrun by waste, foreign influence, and partisan messaging, Fox News Digital reported.

“This place is rotten. It’s rotten to the core," Lake told lawmakers. "President Trump has asked me to go in and help clean it up, and he’s also issued an executive order to reduce this agency down to its mandate, to what is mandated, statutorily required. That’s exactly what I’m doing. I don’t care if they attack me."

Trump took to Truth Social Wednesday to back his MAGA ally, calling Voice of America (VOA) “a TOTAL, LEFTWING DISASTER.”

“No Republican should vote for its survival. KILL IT!” the president demanded.

"It’s really like a rotten piece of fish," Kari added of the agency in her remarks on Capitol Hill. "And you’re looking at it, and you’re saying, ‘Is there anything we can pull out of here and eat?’ And it’s best to just scrap the whole thing and start over."

The plan to dismantle the agency has support from House Republicans, including House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). Lake told the committee that USAGM was on track to be gutted by 2026, in line with Trump’s executive order.

“She argued that instead of defending American values abroad, the federally funded national and international news agency had become compromised with hostile actors potentially influencing what gets broadcast on the U.S. taxpayer's dime,” according to Fox News. Lake also claimed that the Chinese Communist party “has more control over what we put out editorially than people who are management at the agency," the network reported.

While Democrats accused Lake of repeating anti-VOA talking points similar to those used by China, Lake insisted, “We are doing what is statutorily required. That’s what we’re going to do."