Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett called out President Donald Trump's ally Elon Musk for the actions of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has been cutting funding for government programs.
"Elon, if you're watching, come through, boo, 'cause you haven't shown up to the DOGE subcommittee yet," she said during an interview with MSNBC host Ali Velshi Tuesday night.
Crockett and Velshi discussed Musk's perceived role in the spread of misinformation, recalling how Musk and Trump perpetuated a false narrative in which they stated that President Joe Biden spent millions of dollars on condoms to send to Palestinians or members of Hamas in Gaza.
"It's not even just nonsense, it's just that they're idiots," Crockett said, noting that DOGE also fired employees tasked with protecting the nation's nuclear stockpile, later struggling to reinstate those same employees as they were terminated outside of the typical process.
"I don't know how anyone in this country can look at this administration and feel some semblance of any type of confidence, right?" she told Velshi.
"This is nothing more than a money grab. He's not out there trying to save money for the American people. That's not what he's doing. He's lining his pockets," Crockett continued. "And at the same time, he's outraging people who don't know exactly how we spend our money."
Crockett then proceeded to talk about how Musk had been set to receive large sums of federal funding for ventures relating to his own private businesses.
"Elon doesn't want us talking about the fact that he has received almost a billion dollars in new contract money from the U.S. government in just two weeks," Crockett said.
The representative was referring to the $400 million contract that Musk's company Tesla was set to land with the US State Department to create armored electric vehicles, as reported by BLAVITY. The plan was placed on hold after people expressed outrage over the deal.
Musk's space exploration company, SpaceX, is also involved in a $300 million contract with NASA, Space.com reported.
Musk is receiving heavy criticism for the actions of DOGE, whose staffers have reportedly been demanding access to confidential data from other federal departments. Opponents have protested this, saying that DOGE employees are unelected private citizens and that their work has gutted government features.
rounder55 on February 20th, 2025 at 18:09 UTC »
Id recommend everyone watches the whole interview. She talked about how she wants Dems to start doing daily briefings to speak out against the lies and who Trump/Musk/Republicans are hurting. Touched on it the idea being a variation of when Cuomo was doing briefings on COVID because the president was lying and talking about bleach. Its very early in the process but whether they picked a topic each day and focused on that with an expert (the example was having Pete Buttigieg talk about FAA cuts)
She wants them to get their ass on the ground and go to rural communities as well and pinpoint "hey you're going to lose that internet and your farm because of Republicans"
varnell_hill on February 20th, 2025 at 17:42 UTC »
If he’s smart he won’t show up to any hearing because anyone that’s listened to him talk for more than five minutes knows that he ain’t built for a debate.
She would eat him alive.
Mother_Task_2708 on February 20th, 2025 at 17:32 UTC »
Musk ain't built for the ass-whooping he would get.