A MAGA host who was secretly funded by Russia recently argued that influencers should not be able to receive foreign money without registering as a lobbyist.
During an interview on Monday, Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) told host Benny Johnson about his legislation that would ban dual citizens from serving in Congress.
“And it’s important to know that like the people that are advocating and arguing with really big voices on either side of anything are doing so with clarity of heart and that they are doing so for the interests of America and not some foreign nation,” Johnson argued.
“Well, I think one thing we could use is a lot more transparency,” Fine replied. “So, for example, you talked about influencers… Now you have many influencers [who] are simply taking money from overseas, but we don’t actually know that.”
“So a piece of legislation that I’ve been working on would require anyone involved in politics to disclose who’s giving them money,” he continued.
Johnson agreed despite once taking money from Russia: “Yeah, foreign influence is a massive problem. I would probably make an addendum to that to say that if this is a foreign, if you’re being paid by a foreign country, that you should have to register under [the Foreign Agents Registration Act] FARA.”
“I mean, I truly believe that. If you’re getting money, this is lobbyist money. You’re being paid in order to influence certain segments of the American political zeitgeist,” the MAGA host added. “If any country that has an agenda for or against America and they’re paying you. I think that that’s a, I think it’s a FARA violation.”
“And I think that we should put a wall up around that because I, yeah, I believe it’s totally duplicitous.”
In 2024, a Justice Department indictment alleged that a Russian influence operation funded Johnson and other right-wing influencers.
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