In its latest iteration of “Republicans pounce!“, America’s ethically bankrupt media is framing Joe Biden’s use of the federal government to interfere in the 2024 election as the victim of “partisan” Republican attacks. But anyone who’s bothered to research the issue knows that’s complete nonsense.
The deceptive stunt came Sunday, when NPR’s Hansi Lo Wang published an article titled, “Republicans are turning Biden’s voter registration order into a partisan flash point.” The piece focuses on Executive Order 14019, a directive signed by Biden in March 2021 that ordered hundreds of federal agencies to interfere in state and local election administration by using taxpayer dollars to engage in voter registration and get-out-the-vote activities.
Under the order, federal departments were required to draft “strategic plan[s]” explaining how their agencies intended to fulfill Biden’s directive. The administration has routinely stonewalled efforts by good government groups to acquire these plans by slow-walking its response to federal court orders and heavily redacting any related documents it’s released. Agencies were also instructed to collaborate with so-called “nonpartisan third-party organizations” that have been “approved” by the White House to provide “voter registration services on agency premises.”
Conservatives have expressed concerns about this “Bidenbucks” order and its intent for years. But that didn’t stop Wang from dishonestly attempting to make such worries a new, unfounded phenomenon.
“Backed with no substantial evidence, GOP lawmakers and state election officials, along with right-wing activists, have launched a barrage of claims that the Biden administration is using this order to overstep the federal government’s role in elections, garner more Democratic voters and register non-U.S. citizens, who cannot legally vote in federal elections,” Wang wrote.
The NPR correspondent cited subpoenas recently sent to more than a dozen Biden cabinet secretaries by the House Administration Committee that seek to acquire records related to Executive Order 14019 — subpoenas which, as my colleague Matt Kittle reported, these officials did not comply with. Wang also referenced a pending GOP-backed lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court that challenges the order’s legality.
Wang appeared to justify the order’s existence by citing supportive comments from so-called election “experts” and the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, which, among other election-related provisions, requires “[a]ll departments, agencies, and other entities of the executive branch of the Federal Government [to] … cooperate with the States in carrying out” voter registration through public agencies.
What Wang did not mention, however, is that Congress never appropriated funds for the directives mandated under the “Bidenbucks” order. Furthermore, the Biden administration’s refusal to disclose details about the mandate have made it impossible to determine how many taxpayer dollars are being steered toward these seemingly unlawful efforts.
[READ: 9 Ways The Feds Are Using ‘Bidenbucks’ To Rig The 2024 Election]
But NPR’s bid to play defense for the White House didn’t stop there.
In claiming Republicans have “no substantial evidence” to support their claims that “Bidenbucks” are designed to help Democrats, Wang conveniently forgot to mention how most of the so-called “nonpartisan third-party organizations” collaborating with the federal government on voter registration activities are extremely left-wing. Records uncovered by conservative media and good government groups found that Democrat-affiliated groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Demos are actively colluding with the administration on get-out-the-vote activities.
The White House’s use of taxpayer dollars to target and register likely-Democrat voters is even more apparent when examining the myriad ways agencies are complying with the order.
The Education Department, for example, is allowing colleges to use Federal Work-Study funds — which are used to provide part-time campus jobs to help students with tuition costs — to employ students by government agencies for work such as “supporting broad-based get-out-the-vote activities, voter registration, providing voter assistance at a polling place or through a voter hotline, or serving as a poll worker.” College students are more likely to support Democrat candidates over Republican ones, as analyses of the 2022 midterm election results have shown.
Other Democrat-friendly demographics targeted by the administration include Native Americans, felons, immigrants, and federal workers. GOP election officials such as Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson have also expressed concerns the order could be used to register illegal aliens to vote.
Asking NPR to be honest with its readers about “Bidenbucks” is like asking Biden to make it through a speech without saying something incoherent. Like its fellow anti-speech publications, the taxpayer-funded outlet isn’t interested in reporting the truth, but in advancing the Democrat Party narrative.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
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