Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris is a “broadband czar” who can't get a single American online.
Trump said at a rally in Uniondale, New York.
In 2021, Joe Biden gave Kamala Harris the mission to bring broadband to rural America. Rural America desperately needed broadband. And he gave her $42 billion to do it. Now, three years later, not one home has broadband. Everybody's saying, “What happened to the money?” $42 billion and not one home.
Trump's comments about Harris' failure to connect Americans to broadband came in response to a Senate Republican letter led by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to Harris for her failure to get Americans connected to the internet.
In their letter, Senate Republicans said her job as “broadband czar” has been just as disastrous as her job as “border czar.”
Thune told Breitbart News in a statement on Friday that President Trump's policies have helped improve internet access.
“Kamala Harris, the broadband secretary, spent the last three years with $42 billion in taxpayer money spent on broadband expansion and didn't get anyone online. Under the Trump Administration, red tape and bureaucratic delays were cut, creating the opportunity for massive internet expansion,” Thune said in a statement to Breitbart News.
As Breitbart News reported, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program is weighed down with progressive mandates such as:
- Onerous work requirements that “actively” discriminate against workers could “deny communities, particularly rural ones, access to reliable broadband service.”
- Encourage government-owned networks over private investment.
- Prohibits non-fiber optic projects from receiving BEAD funds and prioritizes fiber optic cable deployment over wireless internet deployment.
- Affordability and rate regulation obligations: confusion about how to do it follow This rule significantly delayed the rollout of BEAD broadband in Virginia.
- Eligible projects would be required to consider “climate-related” risks, but this is not included in the infrastructure bill's text.
- The Biden-Harris Administration has been inconsistent in its waiver process to quickly roll out the purchase of broadband products and supplies from American workers and businesses.
In a statement to Breitbart News, Thune concluded, “Unfortunately, Harris has taken a radically different approach to broadband, advancing many liberal agendas that will further leave underserved communities behind. The $42 billion question is: What effort can the American people trust VP Harris to lead?”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X Sean Moran 3.
