By Hannah Nightingale – The Postmillennial
On Sunday, CBS News’ 60 Minutes aired an episode featuring two people who purportedly lost their jobs in the USAID shutdown. However, the two people featured in the episode actually worked for an outside company, not USAID. CBS said that Kristina Drye and Adam Dubard had been “fired this month in the chaotic shutdown of foreign aid distributed by the US Agency for International Development, USAID. More than 8,000 USAID employees were sent home by the administration.”
Drye was the speechwriter for Biden USAID administrator Samantha Power. Drye’s LinkedIn account stated that she worked “through XLA and Jefferson Partners to support the USAID Administration team, serving on the speechwriting and communications group for Administrator of USAID Samantha Power.”
Drye, described as being “fired in the USAID shutdown” said, “Twelve days ago, people knew where their next paycheck was coming from. They knew how they were going to pay for their kids’ daycare, their medical bills. And then, all gone overnight.”
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast revealed in early February that grants issued under the Biden administration by USAID include $15 million for condoms for the Taliban, around $3.3 million for “being LGBTQ in the Caribbean,” and $1.5 million to promote job opportunities for LGBTQ individuals in Serbia.
The episode also featured Adam Dubard, whose LinkedIn stated, “I am currently a Communications Analyst for XLA working with the USAID Public Engagement team within the Bureau of Legislative and Public Affairs (LPA).”
In response to the report, Kari Lake, who has been nomiated by Trump to head Voice of America, wrote, “Kristina Drye was Samantha Power’s speech writer. Samantha Power was the former head of the USAID. 60 Minutes tried to pass off the woman who helped give voice to all of this agency’s corruption as a common civil servant. The news doesn’t get much faker than this.”
Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, replied, “60 Minutes is a scam.”