But it’s time Wuco hosted “The Frank Wuco Show” from 2011 to 2013 that got the most attention. His hiring has raised eyebrows among USAGM employees, who marvel that an agency dedicated to promoting factual news to audiences around the world would hire someone who has proliferation of conspiracy theories with no basis in reality.
In 2017, CNN reported: “Among the conspiracy theories that drove Wuco were claims that memoirs of former President Barack Obama ghost were written by former anti-Vietnam War radical Bill Ayers, claims that former CIA director John Brennan converted him to Islam and claims Attorney General Eric Holder had been a member of the Black Panthers. ”
At one appearance in 2011, he then called Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi “Nancy Nazi Pelosi” and mocked her appearance.
“Saw her last night, it made me think. I’ll have to ask my sister-in-law who a plastic surgeon is if this is true,” he said, in comments first discovered by CNF’s KFile. ‘But I’m telling you that Botox must have an expiration date. No, I’m not talking about Botox in the bottle. I’m talking about Botox in your face. And apparently, from what I saw last night, it’s not a slow process. ”
In 2013, during a speech criticizing Obama, Wuco told a crowd of Tea Partiers: “I thought he was a Kenyan!” in response to a public member telling him that Obama was a plagiarist.
Earlier in his career, Wuco also worked as an adviser to parts of the military on how Islamic terrorists thought. As part of that, he created a jihadist alter-ego called ‘Fuad Wasul’, an identity he once disguised in Islamic clothing. He also had a radio segment called ‘Ask the Jihadist.’
“I’m sure this is going well with our Middle East audience broadcasting networks,” said one USAGM official.
Asked for comment on the new hires, a USAGM spokesman said: “CEO Pack has chosen an elite leadership team consisting of experts like former members of the US Armed Forces who are committed to carrying out the mission of the USAGM, protecting the national security of the US, and serving the American people. ”
The front office of USAGM has also hired Toni DeLancey, who was previously the chief executive officer of social-conservative group Concerned Women of America, as a senior adviser. This is Delancey’s second stint in the Trump administration. From September 2017 to April 2019, she was Deputy Director of Congress and Public Affairs at the Farm Credit Administration. Earlier in her career, she worked for the U.S. Postal Service, Fox News, for seven years for one year, and is a graduate of West Point. Delancey did not respond to a request for comment.
On Wednesday, Pack removed seven top officials who had long been fired from the agency for alleged security breaches in connection with the exact payment of foreign nationals hired to be journalists for the USAGM broadcast networks and the confusion of U.S. employees of the office.
Among the displaced people was General Counsel David Kligerman. In mid-June, the front office of USAGM, in the direction of Chief of Staff Emily Newman, asked a new senior political appointee to gather negative information about Kligerman to justify his dismissal. The request came just days after Kligerman raised concerns about the legality of Pack’s mass terminations and reshuffles on Pack’s first day. The nominee did not feel comfortable with the instruction and soon went to another part of the Trump administration, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The front office then installed former State Department official Mora Namdar as acting vice president for legal affairs, risks and compliance. According to two of the men, she fulfilled the original request to compile material against Kligerman and worked in tandem with Newman to undermine and sideline him. Newman and Namdar did not respond to requests for comment.
In a statement, a USAGM spokesman said: “The accusation is completely false. Members of CEO Pack’s senior management team have never met the people who carry out attacks against them. This team is focused on protecting the national security of the US, and it is dedicated to tackling more than a decade of severe and systemic security disasters that are the legacy of the agency’s previous failed leadership. There is a lot of misinformation and misinformation being propagated by certain individuals who want US taxpayer dollars but do not want oversight of how these funds are spent. “
Kligerman said his removal had “revenge.” His colleague Grant Turner, who was fired as CFO on Wednesday, is investigating all legal options related to his fire.
Their sister has also raised questions about why Kligerman, Turner and the other people on Wednesday, instead of some others who remain at the bureau, have in the past been held responsible for alleged mismanagement of management.
Three current and former officials of USAGM as its predecessor agency, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, have asked why USAGM chief executive André Mendes was not among the officials removed on Wednesday, given that he served in senior leadership positions at a time when According to Pack, there was a division in the order of foreign nationals who were hired in those years to be journalists for USAGM’s broadcast networks.
Some USAGM staff also disagreed with the claim that the agency allowed lower standards for veterans and said officials wanted to use an even more detailed and rigorous process, but were denied the ability to do so by the Office of Personnel Management. Mendes did not respond to a request for comment.
Pack will testify before the Foreign Affairs Committee on Sept. 24, and rep. Eliot Engel (DN.Y.), the commission’s chairman, said Pack would be expected to declare his “scandalous actions” as the head of USAGM.
“He is destroying the decades-old legacy of America’s international broadcasting efforts in a clear attempt to transform the agency into an ideological mouthpiece to promote Donald Trump ahead of the election,” Engel said in a statement. “The United States is not a dictatorship, and I will not stand by it because Donald Trump is trying to make a Soviet Tass or Chinese Xinhua government game through his henchman, Michael Pack.”
