To say that the Department of Government Efficiency’s revelations of corruption within the U.S. Agency for International Development have hit a nerve inside the Democratic Party, would be like calling a 9.0 magnitude earthquake a little shake.
The news struck terror among Democrats. For many Americans, it was stunning enough to learn that a federal agency had been funneling taxpayer dollars into progressive initiatives across the globe.
But Democrats know the real nightmare has just begun: Elon Musk and his brigade of 20-something tech wizards have only started peeling back the layers of rot festering beneath the surface of the Washington swamp.
Democrats are not taking DOGE’s actions well. In fact, they haven’t been this upset since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
On Tuesday evening, a group of furious Democratic lawmakers staged a raucous protest outside the Treasury Department building to express their outrage. Their language grew increasingly more incendiary as the evening progressed.
New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver shouted to her colleagues, “We will not take this! We will fight back! And godd*** it, shut down the Senate! We are at war!” I wrote about this story here.
Politico reported that Democratic Reps. Judy Chu (D-CA) and Gwen Moore (D-WI) angrily “barged into” House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office on Wednesday to confront him about “Musk’s team gaining access to a sensitive payment system at the Treasury Department.”
Bessent gave members of Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency access to the payments system last weekend. The system controls trillions of dollars in payments for Social Security, tax refunds and myriad other government functions.
The Treasury Department told lawmakers Tuesday that Musk’s team currently has “read-only” access to the system and that their review “is not resulting” in any suspensions of or delays to disbursements approved by federal agencies.
According to Politico, Chu later told reporters, “Gwen Moore forced her way in there, and then I got to go in right behind her. And she was already confronting Speaker Johnson about Treasury Secretary [Scott] Bessent and the stealing of Americans’ private information, tax information that should never be stolen and given to this billionaire Elon Musk.”
However, Chu’s communication director, Graeme Crews, later issued a statement in which he downplayed Chu’s version of the encounter. Crews wrote, “She never barged, or shoved her way, into anything. She politely joined the meeting already occurring and the Speaker invited her in for a brief, civil discussion. The Secretary [Bessent] was not present, and she left immediately afterwards.”
A person who witnessed the dustup saw it very differently. This individual, who wished to remain anonymous, told Politico, “In the face of incredibly rude, extremely aggressive and frankly unhinged behavior, the Speaker was more than gracious and allowed the members into his personal office to hear their concerns.”
On Sunday, the left-leaning media outlet Wired unmasked the identities of six of Musk’s top engineers at DOGE whose ages range from 19 to 24. The Left immediately pounced on their youth and inexperience. Be that as it may, they have already uncovered a vast trove of evidence pointing to government waste and potential malfeasance within USAID. And now, they’ve set their sights on the Treasury Department.
The Democrats’ fear is palpable, and as a result, Musk has a massive target on his back. They are attempting to do to him what they did to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh ahead of his 2018 Senate confirmation.
Democrats argue that no one ever voted for Musk, and yet he’s been granted unprecedented access to government information.
It’s a pretty weak argument for many reasons. The reality is that many powerful government officials are not elected by the people. Rather, they are appointed by those who have been elected in free and fair elections.
Remember Valerie Jarrett? She was a top advisor to former President Barack Obama. She was thought by some to be the most powerful woman in America during his presidency. And no one ever voted for her either.
Nor did anyone vote for USAID officials, yet, up until this week, they had the power to distribute more than $40 billion in taxpayer funds as they saw fit.
Biden was (arguably) elected by the people, but his senility left him incapable of real governance. To this day, Americans still don’t know who was truly calling the shots during his administration. Whether it was his wife, Jill, or a small circle of trusted advisors, one thing is certain – no one ever cast a ballot for any of them.
But that won’t stop Democrats from coming after Musk. He is in the midst of revealing the vast corruption they have tried to conceal for years. Thus, he must be destroyed.
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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