'Sham': Dem says even GOP witnesses couldn't muster a defense of Musk at DOGE hearing
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) slammed her Republican colleagues on CNN following the first congressional subcommittee hearing on tech billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency task force, which has already moved to seize major parts of federal IT systems and suspend thousands of civil servants. Crockett was outspoken in that hearing, noting that Musk has openly admitted to making false claims about government expenses.
"Congresswoman, did you learn anything from today's hearing that will help you or Elon Musk or anyone eliminate government waste?" asked anchor Jake Tapper.
"I do want to point out that not even ... the Republicans' own witnesses, decided to try to defend what Elon Musk has done thus far," said Crockett.
Rather, she added, they just "talked about things that [Democrats are] advocating for, such as making sure that we can modernize our technology so that we can root out those fraudsters that are able to attack us, because basically, we are still living in the Stone Ages with our technology as we are trying to disseminate much-needed dollars, whether it's for SNAP benefits or whether it's for a contract or whether it's for PPP loans. So yeah, they were advocating for the things that we've been talking about for a long time."
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While Democrats have done that, she continued, "Republicans consistently say defund, defund, and they don't want to make the investments. And therefore we end up in the situation that we're in."
These witnesses "did not have an answer for why it would make sense to get rid of the Department of Education, why it would make sense to tell the CDC and the FDA that they should not be giving out information so that the American public can stay safe," she said. "They didn't have any explanations as to why we would have him sitting over the Department of Treasury, or why, if he is supposedly auditing anything, why they didn't actually go find someone who actually does auditing and instead put him there."
"So honestly, as far as I'm concerned, they have proven that this is nothing more than a sham," Crockett said. "And, as I laid out, another payday for Elon Musk, because we know that if there is any government welfare to be handed out, it is consistently being handed out to Elon Musk, who stopped all the money to USAID and various other organizations that depend on that money, while at the same time deciding that he would somehow get another contract for over $300 million authorized for a company that he's overseeing, while he's also allegedly rooting out waste."
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