Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / BREAKING NEWS: Top Senate Democrats Take Aim At DOGE, Accuse Musk Of Running Shadow Government

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BREAKING NEWS: Top Senate Democrats Take Aim At DOGE, Accuse Musk Of Running Shadow Government · Elon Musk Podcast

0:01
Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk
0:04
Podcast. This is a show where we discuss
0:07
the critical crossroads, the Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The
0:11
Boring Company, and Neurolink. I'm your host, Will Walden.
0:29
Good afternoon, everybody. I'm proud to be joined by
0:33
Senators Murray, Warren, Schatz, and Wyden.
0:37
Now, before our very eyes, an elect on sorry, Before our very
0:43
eyes, an unelected shadow government is conducting a
0:47
hostile takeover of the federal government.
0:50
Last Friday, DOGE forcefully gained access to the Treasury
0:54
Department's payment systems and to the most sensitive
0:58
information of virtually every U.S. citizen.
1:02
Donald Trump basically handed Doge the Social Security data of
1:07
virtually every American citizen.
1:11
Donald Trump. He gave Donald Trump gave Doge
1:14
access to America's personal tax refund data.
1:20
He gave DOGE access to people's Medicare and Medicaid benefits,
1:24
disability payment data. Veteran debt benefit data.
1:28
Worst of all, we don't know what DOGE intends to do with this
1:33
information. If you want to know how an
1:36
unelected shadow government operates, look no further than
1:42
DOGE. Those staffers, whomever they
1:46
are, now have unprecedented access to the most sensitive
1:50
payment data in the entire federal government, with no
1:54
transparency, with no guardrails.
1:58
And guess what? The one independent watchdog who
2:02
could have provided oversight was fired by Donald Trump over a
2:06
week ago. The Treasury Secretary must
2:10
revoke Dosa's access to the Treasury payment system at once.
2:15
If not, Congress must act immediately.
2:20
That is why Leader Jeffries and I are working together on
2:23
legislation which we will introduce to stop unlawful
2:27
meddling in the Treasury Department's payment systems.
2:31
We must protect people's Social Security payments, their
2:36
Medicare payments, tax refunds from any possible tampering by
2:40
DOGE or any other unauthorized entities.
2:45
Let's be very clear. DOGE is not a real government
2:49
agency. It has no authority to make
2:53
spending decisions. It has no authority to shut
2:56
programs down or ignore federal law.
3:00
To give those a chokehold on Treasury payments is
3:04
outlandishly dangerous. It's like putting a tiger into a
3:07
petting zoo and then hoping for the best.
3:12
It's impossible to overstate that this is playing with fire.
3:16
The Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which overseas these
3:21
Treasury Department payments, executes over 1 billion billion
3:26
transactions a year, worth $6 trillion.
3:30
If these payments were ever intentionally or even
3:32
accidentally halted or manipulated, it could paralyze
3:36
our economy. If we're not careful, one
3:40
mistake and people's Social Security benefits could freeze.
3:47
Disability payments, aid to veterans, loans to small
3:50
businesses, they could all be endangered.
3:53
The Treasury Department is already using extraordinary
3:56
measures to ensure we do not default on the debt.
3:59
If Dozier's careless meddling caused us to default, it could
4:04
trigger a worldwide financial crisis.
4:08
This all begs an obvious question.
4:11
What does DOGE really want with this data?
4:14
What possible reason is there to give right wing extremists
4:18
people Social Security payments, Medicare payments, and personal
4:21
information? Will Doge try to halt Social
4:25
Security or Medicare or Medicaid payments?
4:27
God forbid. God forbid.
4:30
Will Doge cut funding to programs approved by Congress
4:33
that Donald Trump decides he doesn't like?
4:36
What about Cancer Research? Food banks?
4:38
School lunches? Veteran's aid?
4:41
Literacy program? Small business loans?
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How do we know those won't use its access to the Treasury to
4:48
enrich Donald Trump's billionaire friends?
4:51
What if they go after business competition of Doge's
4:54
leadership? It is laughably naive to look at
4:58
the wealthy billionaires who run DOGE and take them at their word
5:01
that all they care about is efficiency.
5:04
Give me a break. The Treasury Department must
5:07
revoke those his access to the Treasury payment system at once.
5:12
We must halt this unlawful and dangerous power grab.
5:16
DOGE has no business anywhere, anywhere near the federal
5:21
government's payment systems nor America's private data.
5:25
Senator Murray. Well, we're two weeks in and it
5:31
is already painfully clear. This is the most corrupt
5:35
administration in our history, and it's putting our economy,
5:40
our government, and our most at risk communities in serious
5:44
jeopardy. In particular, we learned that
5:46
Elon Musk now has access to the Treasury Department's most
5:51
sensitive payment system, hand handling $6 trillion every year
5:57
and managing nearly all federal disbursements.
6:01
It's a system that contains extremely sensitive personal and
6:05
commercial information, and I've been hearing from people across
6:10
my state who are truly alarmed about what Musk and his
6:14
associates having access to this system could mean for their data
6:19
and for funding that they count on.
6:22
Let's not mince words here. And unelected, unaccountable
6:27
billionaire with expansive conflicts of interest, deep ties
6:32
to China, and an indiscreet axe to grind against perceived
6:36
enemies is hijacking our nation's most sensitive
6:41
financial data systems and it's checkbook so that he can
6:46
illegally block funds to our constituents based on the
6:49
slightest whim or wildest conspiracy.
6:53
Funds, mind you, that Congress passed on a bipartisan basis.
6:58
Some Republicans are trying to suggest that Musk only has
7:02
viewing access to Treasury's highly sensitive payment system,
7:07
as if that's acceptable either. But why on earth should we
7:11
believe that, Particularly when he is saying the exact opposite
7:16
loudly and repeatedly for everyone to see?
7:20
What funds will Elon target next?
7:24
Life saving, medical research? Housing assistance?
7:28
Food banks? We already know he is falsely
7:31
attacking faith-based organizations that help people
7:36
and promising to cut off funds based off conspiracy theories.
7:40
The world's richest man has vowed to cut off funding that
7:45
helps the least among us. Think about that, and next think
7:50
about how many dollars he himself makes from government
7:55
contracts and the Trump administration is handing the
7:59
keys of the Treasury to him. It does not get more blatantly
8:03
corrupt than that. And let me under score just how
8:06
dangerous this is. Because now that Trump has
8:09
handed over Treasury's checkbook, what if Elon decides
8:13
he doesn't like how Ford is getting federal funds to build
8:16
an EV battery plant? What's next?
8:19
All Elon has to do is say, oh, they're woke and he can convince
8:23
Trump to illegally cut off those funds.
8:27
Maybe Elon will decide he doesn't like that Blue Origin
8:30
and not SpaceX gets a contract so he wants to gum up the works
8:34
on their payments. Private corporations and
8:38
competitors take note, and anyone who thinks that surely
8:42
won't happen has not been paying attention.
8:45
Now, make no mistake, Trump and Musk have absolutely 00 legal
8:52
authority to hold up any federal payments that are law, but that
8:56
has not stopped them so far. This country is still reeling
9:01
from the chaos of last week's blanket spending freeze, and
9:05
Trump's illegal EOS to withhold funds are still not yet revoked.
9:11
Trump and Musk have yet to find a law they think applies to
9:15
them. That is not how things work in
9:18
this country. We have a democracy, we have
9:22
checks and we have balances where the president is
9:25
accountable to Congress, where we pass the laws and he
9:29
implements them. But some of my colleagues across
9:32
the aisle seem to be forgetting that our democracy doesn't work
9:36
by magic. We have to hold our do our part
9:39
to hold the president accountable.
9:42
Our job is not to say yes to everything any president does,
9:45
no matter how lawless or harmful.
9:48
Democrats are pushing back with the tools that we have.
9:52
We'll speak out. We will press this
9:54
administration, we will open investigations, and we will
9:58
demand accountability. The one tool we do not have is
10:02
the majority in this Congress. So that means our Republican
10:06
colleagues have to say enough. We need them to join us.
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We need them to stand up to the corruption and lawlessness and
10:14
stand up for the people they represent.
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Ron. Thank you, Senator Murray.
10:21
And I got horse flying all night, so no filibusters from
10:26
me. Our finance investigators got
10:30
confirmation from whistleblowers late Friday that the Treasury
10:35
Secretary had turned the keys over to the Musk Hatchet Squad.
10:40
And here's where we are now. It is clear that unqualified and
10:46
unaccountable people have seized control of the flow of taxpayer
10:51
funds and a trove of extremely sensitive data.
10:56
They are seizing the tools you need for a coup.
11:02
Their first target, I'll be Gate, wasn't anything to do with
11:05
fraud or waste. It was a religious charity for
11:08
poor people. If Donald Trump cared about
11:11
improper payments, he wouldn't have fired the inspectors
11:14
general. Nobody should fall for that bit
11:17
of misdirection now. A few hours ago, Trump claimed
11:22
that Musk only looks at payments and doesn't have the authority
11:27
to shut any down. That's Donald Trump.
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It's pretty clear, folks, that Musk sees it differently as
11:37
Trump and must continue targeting Americans they don't
11:40
like. There's nothing to stop them
11:42
from cutting off Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid,
11:45
penalizing cities and states that defy Trump's illegal
11:49
orders. And a lot of us care deeply, as
11:53
our constituents do, about privacy.
11:56
Musk has access to the personal information of hundreds of
12:00
millions of Americans, bank accounts, tax data, Social
12:04
Security numbers, home addresses, if people are creeped
12:09
out. And you heard from Senator
12:10
Murray how folks in the Northwest feel about this Elon
12:15
Musk and his hatchet squad. Having your bank accounts, your
12:18
home address, Social Security number.
12:21
Trust me, folks in the Pacific Northwest think that this is way
12:25
out of bounds for government. The Musk hatchet brigade has
12:31
infiltrated a goldmine of data that every foreign spy and every
12:37
corrupt actor would love to see. It is a prescription for
12:43
nightmares. Let's remember that Musk
12:46
reportedly couldn't get a security clearance because of
12:48
his financial ties to the Chinese government and his other
12:52
foreign connections. That's the guy, folks, who's now
12:56
got his hands on the personal data of hundreds of millions of
12:59
Americans and some unknown number of businesses and groups.
13:04
Last point, the Trump administration caused chaos in
13:08
Medicaid and other services that are important to Americans last
13:12
week when they shut down the primary payment portals to
13:16
States and social service agencies.
13:19
These are incompetent people. They don't care about the damage
13:24
they're doing. And now they may be in charge of
13:27
the tightrope walk the Treasury has to do to avoid defaulting on
13:33
out of debt. We're one mistake away from
13:36
economic catastrophe. Senator Murray, who we going to
13:41
next? Senator Warren.
13:43
Thank you. Thank you.
13:44
So I just want to be clear about what's going on here.
13:48
The system to make sure that your granddad gets his Social
13:51
Security check, the system that makes sure that your mom's
13:55
doctor gets Medicare payment to cover her medical appointment,
13:59
and the system that makes sure that you get the tax refund that
14:03
you're owed has been taken over by Elon Musk.
14:08
And every organization, from your state government that uses
14:11
federal money on that bridge project to the local Head Start
14:15
that takes care of little kids while their mommies and daddies
14:18
go to work is now at the mercy of Elon Musk.
14:23
Maybe you get paid, or maybe you don't.
14:27
Because now it appears that all of us work for Elon Musk.
14:32
Elon just grabbed the controls of our whole payment system,
14:37
demanding the power to turn it on for his friends or turn it
14:42
off for anyone he doesn't like. One guy deciding who gets paid
14:48
and who doesn't. It is not the law, but it is the
14:52
reality. Now there's a second problem
14:55
here. It's not just payments from the
14:58
federal government that are now in Elon's control.
15:01
Elon and his handful of friends now have full access to your
15:06
personal and financial information that's in the
15:08
system. Your payment history, your
15:12
Social Security number, your bank account numbers.
15:16
Elon now has the power to suck out all of that information for
15:21
his own use. Now, whether it's to boost his
15:24
finances or expand his political power, it is all up to Elon.
15:31
And there is a third problem. In order for this handful of
15:34
programmers to gain access to our $6 trillion payment system,
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we don't know what safeguards were pulled down.
15:44
Are the gates wide open now for hackers from China, from North
15:49
Korea, from Iran, from Russia? Heck, who knows what Black Hat
15:54
hackers all around the world are finding out about each one of us
16:00
and copying that information for their own criminal uses?
16:07
Donald Trump and his billionaire buddies are determined to take
16:10
over this government to make it work better for themselves and
16:15
worse for everyone else. And this is just the start.
16:19
As we gear up for the tax fight, it will become even clearer that
16:23
Trump will open the doors for his billionaires and giant
16:28
corporations to find more ways to loot the government at your
16:33
expense. Meanwhile, everyone else pays
16:37
more for groceries, more for housing, more for prescription
16:41
drugs, and more for healthcare When unelected billionaires
16:46
start ransacking our government offices.
16:49
This is not business as usual. Nope, nothing is normal.
16:55
We are living a nightmare created by Donald Trump and Elon
17:01
Musk, and we need to wake up. We need to use every tool we
17:07
have to fight back. And in the Senate, we can start
17:10
by saying no to dangerous Trump nominees like Tulsi Gabbard and
17:16
Russ Vote. That's it for me.
17:18
Go ahead. I just want all of you to
17:25
imagine yourself a foreign correspondent.
17:29
How would you cover this? If this were in South America or
17:34
Central America or sub-Saharan Africa, how would the coverage
17:38
change? If you don't like an agency, if
17:45
you don't like a spending provision, propose a bill.
17:51
Pass a law that is so foundational to the American
17:56
system of government that I don't want to race past this
18:00
idea that you can wave away a federal law because you don't
18:05
like it. And so it is both an outrage and
18:10
an illegal act. But it also gives us some
18:12
confidence, and the public should have some confidence.
18:15
The law here is absolutely on the side of the American people
18:21
being in control of taxpayer funds through the Congress,
18:25
through the Congress. And so they are depending on
18:29
some sort of sense of swagger and inevitability to storm into
18:35
buildings and take over the servers and to run the databases
18:42
and to relieve people of their duties.
18:45
Like this is some hostile takeover of a tech company.
18:50
This is your government, and you can hate parts of it and love
18:55
parts of it and be neutral about other parts of it, but it's
18:58
still your government. And the way a person expresses
19:03
their views about spending is by electing a member of Congress
19:09
who believes what they believe. And so if anyone in the Trump
19:13
administration wants to modify the spending law that was
19:18
enacted, you got to come back to Congress and modify the law that
19:23
was enacted. This is not some minor
19:28
transgression. This is an illegal act.
19:30
They stormed in the buildings. They shut down agencies
19:34
illegally. And sure, first it was USA, but
19:38
they are now systematically going into the Small Business
19:41
Administration, the Department of the Treasury, and they will
19:43
not stop until they believe they have total control over
19:48
spending. And that's not the way the
19:49
American system of government is supposed to work.
19:55
Thank you. I have a question.
19:56
I know, Senator Schultz, you had put a hold on all the State
19:59
Department nominees, but this is to all of you.
20:02
Why not go to the mat? You have all these nominees on
20:04
the floor. I know they're coming in and out
20:06
of executive session on the bus to vote.
20:08
Why not? If you're so upset about this,
20:10
then this is such a damning action down there.
20:12
Make them go through every single parliamentary hurdle, go
20:15
in and out of executive sessions, put holds on every
20:18
single nominee and make this as difficult as possible.
20:21
We are pursuing every action that we think we can do.
20:25
But I will tell you this, we are here to pull the fire alarm.
20:30
We are pulling the fire alarm. It is up to Republicans who are
20:34
the majority in Congress, who are passing these nominations,
20:38
who are sitting silently by while Elon Musk goes into
20:42
departments, into agencies and takes your information.
20:46
It is up to them to decide whether they want to get out the
20:49
fire hoses or sit in the fire. And I think we know what they
20:53
need to do, and we're calling on them to.
20:55
Do that, Chad. One fact I know, because you
20:58
follow the Finance Committee, the filing season has just
21:01
started and we got word that Musk apparently doesn't agree
21:08
with the Treasury Secretary. The Treasury Secretary said that
21:11
he was going to allow direct file this new approach that
21:16
Senator Warren and a whole group of us have been after for years
21:20
because we're the only Western industrialized nation that
21:23
doesn't use this approach and we've got to run this to ground.
21:26
But it's our understanding that Musk is going after that.
21:29
And if that's the case, that will be an immense burden on
21:33
people who've already started to file their taxes.
21:36
This is out of control and simply cries out for some
21:41
accountability. And that's what we're focused
21:44
on. And a bunch of us that are on
21:45
the tax committee and are already working on it.
21:49
Yes. Can you just expand on that a
21:51
little? Bit you are a minority right now
21:53
you are finding. This through.
21:55
Your communication, but what? Other steps can you?
22:01
Like you say. Well, first of all, remember
22:04
last. Oh, here we are a week later.
22:06
A week ago, the Trump administration illegally started
22:10
impounding money that Congress, in a bipartisan fashion, had
22:15
agreed to put into law. Within a few days, we had legal
22:20
challenges to that in the courts and every judge that has seen
22:24
this to my knowledge, has told them that this is illegal and
22:28
that they need to start the payments again.
22:30
I will ask them aside, tell you I spent the day on the phone
22:33
with a number of my constituents who were calling who still don't
22:37
have access to their funds. So we have an administration
22:40
right now who doesn't believe the law applies to them.
22:43
We will pursue this in the courts.
22:45
We will demand that our counterparts in the Republican
22:48
caucus also call on the president to follow the law.
22:52
And we will again, ask everyone out there to let your legislator
22:57
know, use your voice to let your members of Congress know you
23:02
will not stand for this. That's what changed last week.
23:05
And that's one final thing on the procedural stuff.
23:07
We're just not going to preview. We're we're just not going to
23:10
preview all of our parliamentary moves.
23:13
We have leverage. We don't have extensive
23:15
leverage, but we we're not without tools and we will be
23:18
using them, but we're not going to announce all of what we're up
23:21
to today. March 14th Government.
23:26
Funding deadline performed leverage?
23:28
And if so, how do you fund? Well, I don't, I don't know that
23:31
it's a point of leverage. It's a fact.
23:33
On March 14th, the government shuts down.
23:36
Between now and then, we have to have an agreement, bipartisan
23:40
that goes through Congress, that is passed by the House and by
23:44
the Senate. And what is giving me great
23:46
pause right right now is what if we do all that and come to an
23:50
agreement? And, you know, we like some, we
23:53
don't like some, but we voted in and this administration says
23:56
that's bunk. We don't have to go by that.
23:59
So the level of trust is at the lowest I have ever seen it here
24:03
in Congress in our ability to work together, find a compromise
24:07
and get it passed. It is up to our Republican
24:09
colleagues to stand up to this and assure us that an agreement
24:13
and a law is real and that they will follow up with us.
24:17
So yes, we're, we're all worried about the government shutdown
24:20
deadline of March 14th. No Democrat wants the government
24:24
to shut down. We have all worked extremely
24:25
hard to come to an agreement. We expect our Republican
24:29
colleagues to stand up and work with us to get it done in a
24:32
system of trust that this democracy is founded on.
24:36
Senator, why didn't you? Follow you expand on how you
24:38
know. Well, we've heard it several
24:42
places. Mr. Kerry can get you some of
24:45
the details, but yeah, and the point really is it's almost
24:51
government by whim. You know, we're used to rules
24:55
and the opportunity for all sides to be heard on the Finance
24:59
Committee. We have worked on this for years
25:02
and years. And we said we want to save
25:05
five, 600 bucks for the working guy.
25:08
It is now the filing season and based on what we've heard,
25:12
essentially Musk, I guess says he's now going to be secretary
25:15
of Treasury as well as everything else because he's
25:18
telling Besson, you know, he's going to go in there.
25:20
And, and Besson told us in the Finance Committee when I asked
25:25
the question, he said it is on for this year and people have
25:29
started filing. Have you tried?
25:30
Getting a hold of the Treasury Secretary in these last few days
25:33
and has he responded? He certainly didn't consult with
25:37
us under normal circumstances, the Treasury Secretary consults
25:41
with the committee and we've heard nothing from him on this.
25:45
I ask a question about. USA last question and we'll let
25:48
for and take you to say. Now your former colleague,
25:51
Senator, now Secretary of Rubio said today of USAI, we said our
25:55
frustrations with USA, we go back to my time in Congress.
25:58
It's a completely unresponsive agency and supposed to be, it's
26:01
supposed to respond to the policy directive to the State
26:03
Department and it refuses to do so.
26:05
I know that some of you all have the relationships with him.
26:09
Have you tried to reach out to him today about USAID?
26:11
Do you remember him talking about this when he was a member?
26:13
Have you purchased from other? Republicans, we've been in
26:19
constant my office and, and, and a number of us in the Senate
26:22
have been in constant contact with Secretary Rubio about this.
26:25
He's been obviously overseas, so a little harder to catch.
26:30
Here's what I would say about that.
26:32
If there is an opportunity to look at reform, I am all ears.
26:36
I'm now the ranking member of the S Fobs subcommittee.
26:39
Lindsey Graham and I had a conversation about the kinds of
26:42
reforms that were being contemplated by the secretary.
26:46
But we cannot have a negotiation when the whole agency is
26:50
illegally shut down. If the agency is reopened, then
26:54
we can start acting like adults again and have a negotiation.
26:58
But right now, they've illegally shut down all foreign aid.
27:02
One other point of fact for you is we passed the foreign
27:07
assistance appropriations bill in Congress last year was
27:12
completely everyone voted for it on a bipartisan basis across the
27:16
board, every single member, no one raised any issues that you
27:21
just stated. No one.
27:22
And we had a full committee hearing and markup and none of
27:25
that was raised. I just have.
27:26
One follow up, I have heard from someone in the USA station
27:30
abroad who has not been locked out of their system.
27:33
You're saying everything is shut down?
27:36
Is that the case? I I can't speak to individual
27:39
employees. What I can tell you is that
27:41
money is not flowing. I can tell you that medicine is
27:44
not being delivered. I can tell you that there is
27:46
medicine on the dock that was abandoned and spoiled.
27:51
I can tell you that people are evacuating countries.
27:54
I can tell you that there is an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda and
27:59
Marburg virus in East Africa. And all of those programs are
28:06
either completely shut down or hobbled to the point where
28:08
people can't deliver aid. And, and, and it's not just
28:11
about providing life saving care, it's about maintaining
28:14
stability overseas so that that instability doesn't visit us in
28:19
the United States. Thank you all very much.
28:38
Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
28:39
I really do appreciate your support.
28:42
If you could take a second and hit this subscribe or the follow
28:44
button on whatever podcast platform that you're listening
28:47
on right now, I greatly appreciate it.
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It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never
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miss an episode. And each episode is about 10
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minutes or less to get you caught up quickly.
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And please, if you want to support the show even more, go
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to patreon.com/stagezero and please take care of yourselves
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and each other and I'll see you tomorrow.