Rubio Brags He’s “Championing Free Speech” as He Hand-Picks Protesters to Deport

Secretary of State Marco Rubio touted the closure of a State Department office focusing on foreign disinformation in a self-congratulatory statement crediting himself for being a harbinger of free speech on Wednesday — as he is working tirelessly to hand-pick activists for deportation in a sweeping campaign to crush dissent.

In the press release, entitled “Protecting and Championing Free Speech at the State Department,” Rubio announced that the Trump administration has eliminated the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI) office.

The stated goal for the 40-employee hub was to counter foreign disinformation, though right-wingers like Elon Musk and Ben Shapiro have long complained that the office unfairly censors conservative views, as MIT Technology Review reports. (In reality, the State Department has worked for decades to censor groups like left-wingers, Black people and Muslims.)

Conservative outlets like The Federalist and the Daily Wire took particular issue with the office, suing it last year for funding nonprofits that had labeled the right as “unreliable” and susceptible to foreign disinformation — following revelations that right-wing influencers had been paid nearly $10 million by Russian state media employees to influence their audiences into supporting an end to military funding for Ukraine.

Despite shuttering the office for partisan reasons, Rubio made it sound as though the office was being closed in order to save free speech in the U.S. — in a statement filled with ironies as his State Department carries out a brutal crackdown on free speech and dissent.

“Freedom of speech and expression have been a cornerstone of what it means to be an American citizen. For centuries, the United States served as a beacon of hope for millions of people around the world,” Rubio said, ignoring that he is working to deport or imprison thousands of people for whom the U.S. has served as a symbol of hope. “Over the last decade though, individuals in America have been slandered, fired, charged, and even jailed for simply voicing their opinions.”

So far, as of Wednesday, the administration has sought to revoke the visas of at least 1,300 students across the U.S. Rubio has said that this campaign is punishment for the movement for Palestinian liberation and an end to the Gaza genocide that has swept campuses.

“That is not an America our Founding Fathers would recognize. It is the responsibility of every government official to continuously work to preserve and protect the freedom for Americans to exercise their free speech,” he went on. The office, Rubio said, worked to “actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving. This is antithetical to the very principals [sic] we should be upholding and inconceivable it was taking place in America.”

Ironically, many civil liberties groups and advocates for Palestinian rights have said that it is, in fact, Rubio who is working to “actively silence and censor” voices in the U.S. Rubio himself has said in State Department documents that he is targeting activists over their beliefs; in a memo on Rubio’s targeting of pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil, for instance, Rubio admitted that Khalil’s activism was “otherwise lawful.” Rather, the administration is targeting the Columbia University activist for his beliefs only, the memo said.

Similarly, in a memo on the arrest of fellow Columbia activist and Palestinian Mohsen Mahdawi, the administration said that Mahdawi’s participation in pro-Palestine protests weakens the U.S.’s foreign policy interests — in this case, it seems, its goals for the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.