Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) went after President Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk within the first Delivering on Authorities Effectivity subcommittee listening to Wednesday, saying lawmakers “can’t just sit here today and pretend like everything is normal.”
Stansbury, the highest Democrat on the subcommittee, accused Republicans of defending Musk and Trump “as they are clearly breaking the law,” earlier than taking a swing at Vice President Vance, who she argued was “trying to rewrite the U.S. Constitution by tweet and undermine the judiciary.”
On the shut of her opening remarks, the Democrat additionally despatched a message “directly” to Musk, telling him to return to the committee if he has a “serious desire to engage in democracy and transparency.”
“Come and testify in front of the American people under oath, because we want to know what you’re up to,” she mentioned.
Musk heads the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), which has sought to dismantle federal companies and supply buyouts to federal staff to chop authorities, sparking a number of lawsuits and pushback from Democrats.
Stansbury’s feedback got here not lengthy after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who heads the subcommittee, mentioned on the prime of the listening to that the legislative department “will fight the war on waste shoulder to shoulder with President Trump, Elon Musk and the DOGE team.”
“We as a country are $36 trillion in debt,” Greene mentioned through the listening to, which is targeted on improper funds and fraud, whereas sounding the alarm over rising curiosity funds on the nation’s debt.
“In 2025, interest payments are projected to be $952 billion, which is more than our entire military budget,” she mentioned.
Stansbury mentioned Democrats have organized an inventory of bipartisan proposals “to work on together that would root out waste, fraud and abuse.” However she warned about Trump’s current govt orders to freeze federal spending which have been twisted up in courts, amongst different actions.
“The people who actually investigate waste, fraud and abuse at these agencies are the inspector generals who Donald Trump fired his first week in office in a midnight massacre,” she mentioned. “So we have to ask ourselves, what is really going on here?”
