Latest / NO FILTER / Even though Musk is leaving _this is not the end_ of DOGE_ Dem lawmaker(MP3_160K)

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Even though Musk is leaving _this is not the end_ of DOGE_ Dem lawmaker(MP3_160K) · NO FILTER

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  Speaker 2: Meant.
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  Speaker 1: Joining us now is Democratic Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico,
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  Speaker 1: ranking member of the House Doge Subcommittee. Congresswoman, thanks for
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  Speaker 1: being with us. First your reaction to this new reporting
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  Speaker 1: from the New York Times today about Musk.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I think we all knew that mister Musk
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  Speaker 2: was using drugs, and if you observed his behavior over
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  Speaker 2: the last three and a half months, it's very obvious
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  Speaker 2: that he was completely out of control and he wreaked
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  Speaker 2: havoc on the federal government. And so it does not
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  Speaker 2: surprise me that it was being enhanced by, you know,
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  Speaker 2: substances that make you act crazy. But I think you
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  Speaker 2: know it's not a joke because he has literally shattered
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  Speaker 2: thousands of American lives. He's disrupted our entire federal government.
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  Speaker 2: And just like you know, other rich dudes who want
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  Speaker 2: to tinker with what they think are toys, this is
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  Speaker 2: not a joke. This is the democracy that is our
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  Speaker 2: country and the American people's lives. So you know, there's
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  Speaker 2: going to be very serious consequences, and we will hold
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  Speaker 2: Elon Musk accountable for the damages that he's done.
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  Speaker 1: How do you plan to hold him accountable?
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  Speaker 2: So at the current moment, obviously Democrats are not control
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  Speaker 2: in control of Congress, but the courts are our key
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  Speaker 2: tool right now, and I think it's important to observe
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  Speaker 2: that over the last one hundred and thirty days that
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  Speaker 2: Elon Musk has been a special government employee, there are
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  Speaker 2: now over one hundred over two hundred federal court cases
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  Speaker 2: have been filed against the Trump administration for lawless behavior.
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  Speaker 2: That includes everything from illegal dismantling of USAID and letting
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  Speaker 2: children starve around the world. It includes the mass firings
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  Speaker 2: that were illegal. It includes the illegal data hacking that
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  Speaker 2: happened of American data, and those court cases are pending.
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  Speaker 2: There are dozens of court injunctions, and myself and Jamie
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  Speaker 2: Raskin have also filed legislation for civil liability against Elon
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  Speaker 2: Musk and any special government employee. But it also necessitates
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  Speaker 2: that we went back the House and used the tools
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  Speaker 2: of Congress to hold him accountable. Right now, the courts
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  Speaker 2: are our primary tool.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, you talk about the fights in the courts,
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  Speaker 1: you discuss some of the impacts of DOGE, and yet
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  Speaker 1: we expect to see a united front between the President
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  Speaker 1: and Musk, and this departure event today at the White House.
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  Speaker 1: He were to just kind of boil it down just
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty days. How do you see Musk's
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  Speaker 1: tenure as the President's right hand billionaire.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's important to not be lulled into
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  Speaker 2: a sense of complacency. This battle is not over yet.
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  Speaker 2: The White House has been very clear that Doge is
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  Speaker 2: not going anywhere, and it's very clear that DOGE will
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  Speaker 2: now be transitioned to the work of omb and Russell Vaught,
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  Speaker 2: who is the architect of Project twenty twenty five and
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  Speaker 2: in some ways a much more dangerous figure because he's
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  Speaker 2: worked in the White House previously. In fact, he was
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  Speaker 2: behind Donald Trump's illegal activities that led to his first impeachment.
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  Speaker 2: He understands the mechanisms of how the government works, and
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  Speaker 2: he's already transmitted a set of proposals to the Hill
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  Speaker 2: to make Dog's cuts permanent. We also know the staff
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  Speaker 2: that burrowed in at every single agency in the last
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  Speaker 2: few weeks. They've been even more aggressive in entering agencies
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  Speaker 2: where there is clearly no executive jurisdiction. So I think
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  Speaker 2: it's important you know, Donald Trump is a master of distraction.
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  Speaker 2: We can't be distracted by this oval office dog and
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  Speaker 2: pony show. They're going to roll out tonight because even
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  Speaker 2: though Elon Musk may be exiting the building for now,
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  Speaker 2: the battle against DOGE is squarely still here, and we're
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  Speaker 2: going to have to continue to make sure that we
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  Speaker 2: hold them accountable.
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  Speaker 1: White House Pross Secretary of Caroline Levitt was asked about
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  Speaker 1: doge's leadership now that Musk is going to be gone,
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  Speaker 1: and listen to what she said. Is there a DOGE
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  Speaker 1: leader taking the place of mister Musk.
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  Speaker 2: Well, again, the DOGE leaders are each and every member
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  Speaker 2: of the President's cabinet and the President himself, who is
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  Speaker 2: wholeheartedly committed to cutting waste, fraud, and abuse.
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  Speaker 1: So even if Musk is gone, you talk about Russell
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  Speaker 1: Vote stepping into kind of this new head of DOGE,
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  Speaker 1: if you will, she said, the President's going to be
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  Speaker 1: the one leading it up. And we know the impacts
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  Speaker 1: aren't over yet. A White House official telling Politico that
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  Speaker 1: the true DNA of DOGE is within the agencies where
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  Speaker 1: DOGE staff still work. So I have to wonder, if
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  Speaker 1: you're a public servant in one of these agencies, should
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  Speaker 1: you be concerned?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. I mean, we know that there are DOGE
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  Speaker 2: staff sitting in the cabinet secretary offices of almost every
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  Speaker 2: major agency, and we've seen this play out. Even over
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  Speaker 2: the last week Department of Interior, the DOGE official who's
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  Speaker 2: sitting there essentially escorted a senior career official who spent
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  Speaker 2: forty years of their life at the BLM out of
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  Speaker 2: the building because he wouldn't comply with essentially the activities
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  Speaker 2: that the DOGE appointee wanted them to do. But I
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  Speaker 2: also think, and I really want to make sure people
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  Speaker 2: understand that what DOGE is doing is not only not
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  Speaker 2: normal in an amending cases, not legal inside these agencies,
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  Speaker 2: they've gotten even more aggressive. In fact, over the last
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  Speaker 2: couple of weeks they tried to enter Congressional offices. Now
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  Speaker 2: the executive has zero zero jurisdiction over Congress, you know
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  Speaker 2: the Constitution says this, but they've tried to enter GAO,
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  Speaker 2: They've tried to enter the Library of Congress and even
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  Speaker 2: the Personnel Office for Congress. So what they're doing is
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  Speaker 2: getting even more aggressive, not less so. Just because Musk
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  Speaker 2: is leaving, this is not the end.
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  Speaker 1: And while Musk maybe stepping away from the day to
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  Speaker 1: day work of the administration. He will still be heavily
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  Speaker 1: involved in the government's happenings with his personal companies. You've
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  Speaker 1: said must benefit it directly from his work with Doge.
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  Speaker 1: So what can you, as a member of the Oversight
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  Speaker 1: Committee do about that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, we've opened over one hundred investigations into
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  Speaker 2: Elon Musk and Doge's self dealing. It's clear that whatever
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  Speaker 2: his original intentions, must is utilize the opportunity to give
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  Speaker 2: himself massive amounts of government contracts. We know that he's
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  Speaker 2: switched much of the federal government's communications systems to Starlink.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, to one of the latest reports I just
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  Speaker 2: got yesterday was that he's doing it at MESSF. We
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  Speaker 2: know that he's used his access to priming the pump
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  Speaker 2: for billions of dollars in DoD contracts for SpaceX. And
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  Speaker 2: we know that his staff have downloaded sensitive government data,
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  Speaker 2: our personal data as Americans and have been using it
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  Speaker 2: to train their AI systems. So the Oversight Committee Democrats
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  Speaker 2: have opened many investigations. These are ongoing, and they are
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  Speaker 2: in coordination with our state attorney generals and these court
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  Speaker 2: cases that are pending investigating what they're doing in the courts.
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  Speaker 1: Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, thank you so much for joining us.
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  Speaker 1: We appreciate your time.