| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
Sparklight, we know connection goes way beyond technology. | |
| From Monday morning meetings to Friday nights with friends and everything in between. | ||
| But the best connections are always there, right when you need them. | ||
| So how do you know it's great internet? | ||
| Because it works. | ||
| We're Sparklight and we're always working for you. | ||
| Sparklight supports C-SPAN as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front-row seat to democracy. | ||
| Wednesday, a look at ways to increase government efficiency and reduce unnecessary spending with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and Citizens Against Government Waste President Thomas Schatz testifying before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. | ||
| Watch it live at 10 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 3, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, and online at c-SPAN.org. | ||
| Democratic leaders Senator Chuck Schumer and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries hold a news conference on the first two weeks of the Trump administration's second term. | ||
| They're expected to cover executive actions on tariffs, the border, and government agencies. | ||
| You can watch live coverage starting at 2.30 Eastern right here on C-SPAN. | ||
| Welcome to today's Washington Journal. | ||
| We'll start with this article in USA Today. | ||
| On the front page, it says, Musk puts employees at USAID on leave. | ||
| Foreign aid agency heads to quote the wood chipper. | ||
| The Trump administration moved swiftly Monday to dismantle the USAID, putting hundreds of employees on leave and terminating contracts after tech billionaire Elon Musk said he was in the process of shutting down the agency that oversees foreign aid. | ||
| Musk claimed on social media early Monday morning that he ran the extraordinary move by President Donald Trump and had his full backing. | ||
| It raised immediate objections from Democrats who argued Trump lacks the constitutional authority to eliminate USAID, which was established by Congress as an independent agency in 1998. | ||
| And this is, let's take a look at what Secretary of State Marco Rubio said about closing USAID when he was asked by reporters during his trip in Central America yesterday. | ||
| Well, my issue, as I said, is, yeah, there are things that USAID that we do through USAID that we should continue to do and we will continue to do. | ||
| But everything they do has to be in alignment with the national interest in the foreign policy of the United States. | ||
| And the attitude that USAID has adopted over the years is: no, we are independent of the national interest. | ||
| We fund programs irrespective of whether it's aligned or not aligned with the foreign policy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's ridiculous. | |
| These are taxpayer dollars. | ||
| Every penny that we spend in foreign aid needs to be in furtherance and aligned with the national interest in the national and the foreign policy of the United States. | ||
| So this is not about ending the programs that USAID does per se. | ||
| There are things that it does that are good, and there are things that it does that we have strong questions about. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's about the way it operates as an entity. | |
| And they're supposed to take direction from the State Department policy direction. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They do not. | |
| Not only do they not take policy direction, they're completely uncooperative. | ||
| When you ask questions, when you try to go in and find out, okay, what does this program do? | ||
| Who's getting the money? | ||
| Why was this funded? | ||
| Why are we doing this? | ||
| Why aren't you coordinating with the embassy or the State Department? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Their attitude is: we don't have to answer to you because we are independent. | |
| We answer to no one. | ||
| Well, that's not true, and that will no longer be the case. | ||
| Secretary of State Marco Rubio, he is now acting head of USAID. | ||
| This is the Hill, Marco Rubio, taking over as acting head of USAAD amid agency turmoil. | ||
| And we are going to hear quickly just before we take your calls from Senator Andy Kim. | ||
| He's a Democrat of New Jersey. | ||
| He once worked at USAID, and he talked to reporters. | ||
| Here he is. | ||
|
unidentified
|
About 20 years ago, when I first came to work for the federal government, I walked through these doors right behind me. | |
| I started off my career in public service at USAID. | ||
| And I just have to say how proud I was to be able to serve the country, how proud I was to work for USAID, to be part of the foreign policy of this country. | ||
| And I have to tell you, it was really tough today walking through these same doors 20-some years later, only to see it shut down to employees. | ||
| All weekend long, I was getting calls and phone calls from people that I worked with at USAID before, people that are there now, people who have been disrespected by this administration that pushes them to the side, basically calls in criminals, and tells them not to show up to work today. | ||
| In fact, I went inside trying to speak to the acting administrator Gray. | ||
| Unfortunately, I was not able to meet with him, and I'm going to continue to try today to be able to meet with the acting administrator because I want to hear straight from him. | ||
| You know, these are the orders that he gave. | ||
| You have mysterious people within this new administration sending out emails across the entirety of USAID telling them not to show up. | ||
| I talked to the security guard. | ||
| I talked to the security guard just in there. | ||
| He said he has been given specific orders to prevent employees of USAID from entering the building today. | ||
| And I just find that to be absolutely ridiculous. | ||
| This is no way to govern. | ||
| This is no way to treat public servants. | ||
| And this is no way for us to conduct our foreign policy as a country. | ||
| So I just had to show up today, see it with my own eyes, the chaos of this administration and just their attacks upon public servants in our country. | ||
| That was New Jersey Senator Andy Kim, a Democrat outside of the USAID office building. | ||
| In case you want to go to the website, USAID.gov, it has been taken offline. | ||
| This is what you will get if you go to usaid.gov. | ||
| It has been taken down. | ||
| And let's start with calls. | ||
| This is Matt in Maryland, a federal employee. | ||
| Good morning, Matt. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Let's not sugarcoat what's going on. | ||
| This is a coup. | ||
| The richest man in the world has been given access to basically the United States main bank, the way that we pay people Social Security, the way that we pay basically for everything. | ||
| He's also been given the ability to take one of our most important assets for foreign diplomacy that keeps us out of war offline. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Who knows? | ||
| But he's been given that access. | ||
| With that access and access to the Office of Personnel Management, he has information that no one else has. | ||
| He's a federal contractor. | ||
| He has no security clearance. | ||
| He couldn't get a security clearance. | ||
| And here we are. | ||
| He has access to all that information, giving access to all that information, our information that federal employees have tried to secure forever, to other people who don't have that information. | ||
| He's a federal contractor to us, but also he has contracts with China and I'm sure many of our other foreign enemies. | ||
| This is a coup, and we need to wake up and say this is not normal. | ||
| Even if you voted for Donald Trump, this is not normal. | ||
| Wake up, everyone. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Matt, before you go, since you're a federal employee, can you tell us what's going on with you, with your agency? | ||
| What's happening? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I work for the Department of Defense, and it's never been more precarious in my over 20 years of working in the federal government. | |
| Morale is terrible, which is the point. | ||
| The emails that we received from some janky server that teenagers working for Elon Musk put together to try to encourage all federal employees to quit, we're not going to quit. | ||
| We took an oath to the Constitution, the Constitution that Donald Trump does not believe in. | ||
| And you haven't seen anything because the federal workforce cares about America, cares about America. | ||
| It does not care about Vladimir Putin or whoever the heck Donald Trump and Elon Musk care most about. | ||
| And, Matt, have you been given that buyout option? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, we received it from what we thought was a phishing email, as we find out, sent from people who infiltrated the Office of Personnel Management on behalf of Elon Musk. | |
| Okay, but that's a real offer that you're going to have to decide on, right? | ||
| Don't you have a. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's a real offer, but everyone that I've talked to has doubled down and said, I care about America. | |
| I don't trust anyone involved. | ||
| This is a trap. | ||
| And as details have sprinkled out about this, no one that I know, certainly no one who works for me or no one in my organization plans to take this because they don't trust anyone involved. | ||
| And it doesn't seem legit. | ||
| There are processes to do this kind of thing, and they're not following them. | ||
| Got it, Matt. | ||
| Here's Ed in Lawrenceville, Georgia, Republican. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'm glad I'm the second caller because that first caller that you just talked to doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. | ||
| Musk does not have any power at all. | ||
| Everything that he's doing is suggesting him and his investigators report back to President Trump and they decide if that is good or bad. | ||
| If it's bad and taxpayer money's being used for illicit purposes like giving condoms to the Middle East, I mean, just all the things that go on, billions of dollars wasted all over the decades. | ||
| President Trump is putting an end to it. | ||
| Musk is doing this absolutely free. | ||
| He's not getting paid to do this. | ||
| He's doing this on his own time. | ||
| This man wants to help America. | ||
| That guy's in the Defense Department, that first caller. | ||
| Oh, my God. | ||
| Sorry, Ed. | ||
| I just wanted to ask you when you said that he's not making any money, which he's not making a salary. | ||
| The concept of his contracts with the federal government, how do you react to that? | ||
| Do you see that that could be a conflict of interest for Elon Musk? | ||
| That he could make more money for his companies. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I think that his contracts is a legitimate thing. | |
| And they were approved and they were signed. | ||
| And it doesn't change anything. | ||
| All he's doing is going after the waste, fraud, and abuse. | ||
| And he doesn't have the power to do anything. | ||
| He's got to report to the president. | ||
| And this is CNN. | ||
| Elon Musk is serving as a, quote, special government employee. | ||
| That's according to the White House. | ||
| It says that he's officially serving under President Trump as a special government employee. | ||
| The designation means Musk, who has been a force within the new Trump administration, is not a volunteer, but also not a full-time federal employee. | ||
| According to a Justice Department summary, a special government employee is: quote, anyone who works or expected to work for the government for 130 days or less in a 365-day period. | ||
| Musk is not being paid, a person familiar with his employment told CNN. | ||
| Musk has a top secret security clearance that that official told CNN he's the world's richest man, became an ardent supporter of Trump during the campaign, and has an office on the White House campus. | ||
| Here's Jason in Alabama, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Jason. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How you doing? | ||
| Good. | ||
| I think we need to be real why Elon Musk is there. | ||
| Elon Musk is there because he gave a bunch of money to Trump and bought Twitter to elevate everything Trump is about. | ||
| The previous caller talking about, oh, he doesn't have any power with it. | ||
| If Elon doesn't have any power, why is he there? | ||
| He's there because he gave money. | ||
| He's there because he wants to do, he's on a mission to do what Trump wants him to do. | ||
| And as far as him not making money, he gets access to all the data of all of us. | ||
| That's been the whole fight with all these government employees is giving him access. | ||
| And as far as the buyout, the buyout is a trick. | ||
| Right now, the government funding is riding on a continuing resolution that ends in March. | ||
| Any government employee dumb enough to believe Trump can buy them out until September when their funding ends in March is an idiot. | ||
| Not to mention the maximum amount of voluntary separation incentive that can be given for government employees is $25,000. | ||
| So the next Trump, even if he could pay them through September, he couldn't give them more than $25,000. | ||
| And I would imagine the majority of the people he's trying to get rid of make more than $25,000 in eight months. | ||
| So all of this is this sycophantic right-wing fever dream that the government is filled with demons. | ||
| And the truth be told, they're regular people doing their jobs to make sure that things run well. | ||
| And unfortunately, right-wing voters don't want the government to run well. | ||
| Here's Maurice in Dunkirk, Maryland, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I just wanted to say, I mean, using terms like it's a coup, you don't get a choice in a coup. | |
| The guy said, I mean, if they're giving you the choice of a buyout or to leave, they're not making you leave. | ||
| So why can't we just? | ||
| I mean, the USAID was created in 1961 by executive order. | ||
| So executive orders can be turned over, and they're just basically putting on the brakes and stopping the crazy spending. | ||
| You keep up the good stuff that it does, but you eliminate the bad stuff. | ||
| So people want to make it about Elon. | ||
| It's not about him. | ||
| I mean, he's just doing his job. | ||
| I just want to clarify something. | ||
| So, yes, you're right. | ||
| 1961, JFK did create it by executive order, but it was in 1998 that Congress established USAID as an independent agency. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I understand, but President Trump, as the executive, has the right to do what he's doing. | |
| But let's just check to see what's going on. | ||
| And then we, you know, it's not totally eliminated yet, but it does help to be able to cut spending where you can, especially if it's wasteful spending. | ||
| That's all I'm saying. | ||
| I mean, people just so emotional about it. | ||
| But when you have a choice, choice and coup don't go together. | ||
| But anyway, it's a good conversation to have. | ||
| So thank you very much. | ||
| All right, Maurice. | ||
| This is Michael, a Republican in Smithfield, North Carolina. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Mami. | |
| How's it been going? | ||
| Good. | ||
| Well, the holidays were very tragic, but I'll get right on to the topic this morning. | ||
| You know, and I was talking about we've had one tragic event after another. | ||
| It just seems like the country needs some healing right now. | ||
| And I just want to just send a prayer out to everyone that's been affected by these terrible events that's happened with aviation and terrorism and things going on, school shootings once again. | ||
| But once again, I'd like to see Bill Gates get involved. | ||
| I don't understand why we only have just, you know, one or two voices coming out of the business world. | ||
| If we could put politics aside, and I'm sure Bill Gates did not give money to the Trump campaign or CPAC or anything like that, I would just assume that was probably not the case. | ||
| But if we could just put that aside, giving money, not giving money, voting for someone, not voting for someone, he's our president. | ||
| And if he could just open the invitation to Bill Gates, I think that would cool a lot of heads on the left. | ||
| So, Michael, this is a Michael that used to be in Fort Oaks, North Carolina, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, it is. | |
| He's moving around and confusing me. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, I only moved once, Mimi. | |
| Come on. | ||
| All right, you're in Smithfield now. | ||
| That's it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Okay, got it. | ||
| So let's go back to Doge Elon Musk. | ||
| Were you, do you welcome the things that you've seen him do so far in these first two weeks? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, on a national basis, yes. | |
| I don't, I know a couple, the first caller, I'm very concerned about what's going on, what he's saying. | ||
| I hope things will get better for him. | ||
| And, you know, I don't really know what to say about that. | ||
| We're only being told, but so much and the results and things like that. | ||
| And I would really wish the topic could have been on tariffs this morning because there's a lot of heat on tariffs. | ||
| Yeah, that is also going on. | ||
| That's another big topic. | ||
| You're right. | ||
| So let's take a look at White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt. | ||
| She was asked about whether Musk or anyone working with him had passed a background check. | ||
| Take a look. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Caitlin. | |
| Yes, what kind of security clearance does he have? | ||
| I can confirm he's a special government employee. | ||
| I can also confirm that he has abided by all applicable federal laws. | ||
| As for his security clearance, I'm not sure, but I can check back with you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Did he pass a background check? | |
| Do you know? | ||
| I don't know about the security clearance, but I can check. | ||
| And do you know about anyone who's on his team that was at USAID this weekend or at Treasury Department, whether they also have security clearance? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't know. | |
| But again, I can check on that for you. | ||
| And now to Amanda in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. | ||
| Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Amanda. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, how are you today? | |
| Good. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good. | |
| I'm calling because I'm concerned about how our Constitution was written and how our government is supposed to be run our federal government. | ||
| We have three branches of government: we have the legislative, executive, and the judicial. | ||
| All three are separate. | ||
| And Elon Musk is getting his hand into something that the legislative branch should be taking care of. | ||
| If there is a problem with spending, it has to be done in the legislative branch. | ||
| The money that he's holding on to is the money that's taxpayer money. | ||
| On top of that, he now has access to every American who has received federal money or paid into the federal government, not only their social security numbers, but their bank accounts. | ||
| And we don't even know if it's secure. | ||
| And I just want to tell Republicans, for those who voted for him and disagree with this, please go to fivecalls.org, number fivecalls.org, and put your zip code in and call your representatives, your U.S. Senators, representatives, and tell them this is not right. | ||
| My personal information is no longer secure. | ||
| All right, Amanda, and this is in Hayward, Wisconsin, Independent Line. | ||
| Rick, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| I fully support this Doge effort. | ||
| I think that we have to start somewhere. | ||
| You know, I get it that, you know, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, Democrat, Republican, whatever. | ||
| That first caller, he was just AWOL, if you ask me. | ||
| But don't we need to start somewhere with the, it's exactly what it says, Department of Government Efficiency. | ||
| That's why we have so many problems in the country because we're inefficient. | ||
| I was for Vivek also. | ||
| Unfortunately, he got put in the back seat or something, and now he's wants to run for governor, whatever. | ||
| He's a very smart man. | ||
| You know, I don't care. | ||
| If he was a Democrat, I would still think he was a very smart man. | ||
| So I just don't understand why we draw the line on what party you're from. | ||
| I've called before, and I voted for Obama back in those days, and I voted for Trump. | ||
| You know, I'm independent. | ||
| I don't think that it's right that there's a Democrat and Republican. | ||
| And a lot of times, C-SPAN spins us into racial issues. | ||
| And that, I think, is wrong because there should be some effort to try to keep people from bringing race into these things. | ||
| Because I don't care if you're black or white or Native American or whatever. | ||
| Anyway, you guys do a great job, but I feel like I need to know. | ||
| Sometimes it's hard to know what subjects are coming up. | ||
| Do you only take calls like once from each person in a 30-day period, or can you call whenever you want? | ||
| No, it's every 30 days, Rick. | ||
| Just to give other people. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I've had a hard time getting through sometimes, and this goes back to when Vivek was – anyway, go ahead. | |
| Take your other calls. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Have a great day. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And this is John in California, Republican Line. | ||
| Good morning, John. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Everybody is all excited about Elon Musk. | ||
| Almost every president has had outside advisors that were friends or acquaintances or college roommates. | ||
| Or in this case, a guy that had done real well in the private sector. | ||
| They used to call it the kitchen cabinet. | ||
| But the man that said Musk doesn't have any power is exactly right. | ||
| He goes to Trump. | ||
| He tells Trump what's going on. | ||
| In this case, he said this isn't just a bad apple. | ||
| It's a bowl of worms. | ||
| And what happens with this aid? | ||
| Number one, it goes to a lot of countries that absolutely hate the United States. | ||
| Number two, it goes to a lot of despots and dictators, and it doesn't get to where it belongs. | ||
| Number three, and this is the big scandal about this foreign aid and whatnot, is it goes to governments and it'll come back in the form of political donations to our politicians. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It needs to be put under the auspices of the State Department and it needs to be overseen by the Secretary of State, whether he's a Democrat or a Republican. | |
| Doesn't need to be this little agency that's going to decide where these billions and billions of dollars go. | ||
| We are $37 trillion in debt. | ||
| We are not going to be able to tax the rich, as the Democrats keep preaching, out of this. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's going to sink the country if we don't change it. | |
| There is a huge amount of waste in almost every segment. | ||
| The Defense Department guy that called, what about all these G12-level employees of the government making $150,000, $200,000 a year that weren't even going to work during the last four years since COVID? | ||
| Is that kind of wasteful? | ||
| I think it is. | ||
| And that's what Elon Musk has petitioned to try to clean up. | ||
| He's going to check it out. | ||
| He's going to check back with Trump. | ||
| And as the guy from Massachusetts said, we've got to start somewhere. | ||
| We cannot continue. | ||
| The guy from the Defense Department that said, oh, morale is very low. | ||
| Well, who's been running the country for the last four years if morale is so low? | ||
| The federal government is bloated beyond belief. | ||
| Money goes where we don't know. | ||
| And we've got to change that. | ||
| It's got to change. | ||
| We will sink in this $37 trillion debt if we don't. | ||
| And yeah, a lot of people aren't going to like it, but that's just the I would rather do that than die under this $37 trillion in debt. | ||
| Got it, John. | ||
| And here's Newsweek about USAID. | ||
| It says this is the map. | ||
| It shows where it spends the most money. | ||
| And this is the map right here. | ||
| You can take a look if you'd like to. | ||
| You can press on each one and see. | ||
| It says that the U.S. is by far the world's largest provider of humanitarian aid. | ||
| USAID administers billions of dollars in humanitarian development and security assistance in more than 100 countries. | ||
| The U.S. spends less than 1% of its budget on foreign assistance, a smaller share overall than some other countries. | ||
| And this is Taylor in Knoxville, Tennessee, Democrat. | ||
| Taylor, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, hi. | |
| Okay, so first, for any moderates or conservatives, I suggest you invest in some earplugs because you're going to hear the weeping and wailing like you've never heard. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Second, these people's gravy train with biscuit wheels has hopped the tracks. | ||
| Their livelihoods are at stake. | ||
| It happens in the private sector all the time. | ||
| Not so much in the federal government. | ||
| They're going to have to go get jobs. | ||
| Frank Zappa had a song called Wind Up Working in the Gas Station. | ||
| I suggest you give it a listen. | ||
| It's a good one. | ||
| Elon Musk and Doge. | ||
| I think I'm not super up to date on what he's doing, but if it's exploratory, great. | ||
| And these people probably have a SpaceX t-cert in the back of their closet because he was a darling of the left about five to ten years ago. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And this is the Washington Post with this. | ||
| It says, Trump preps order to dismantle Education Department. | ||
| It says President Trump is preparing an executive order aimed at eventually closing the Education Department and in the short term, dismantling it from within, according to three people briefed on its contents. | ||
| The draft order acknowledges that only Congress can shut down the department and instead directs the agency to begin to diminish itself. | ||
| These people said it said that that work is underway already. | ||
| The new administration has been trying to reduce the workforce by putting scores of employees on administrative leave and pressuring staff to voluntarily quit. | ||
| Roughly 20 people with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOE, have been working inside the Education Department, looking to cut spending and staff. | ||
| And it says at least some Doge staffers have gained access to multiple sensitive internal systems, including a financial aid data set that contains the personal information for millions of students enrolled in the federal student aid program. | ||
| That's at the Washington Post if you'd like to see the rest of that. | ||
| And this is Mary Independent in Richland, Washington. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Mamie. | |
| What aggravates me so much is the people who call in and don't realize that everything, that the democracy is going away. | ||
| The people that hold the purse is the Congress. | ||
| When Elon Musk got all of that information, that's all of your social security numbers, all your information on yourself, the people before you, your grandchildren. | ||
| And he, the only reason he got it was because he paid $390 million to get Trump elected. | ||
| And sure, there's other people in there that are giving him, how can I say it? | ||
| Like information, this and that. | ||
| But as the first person that they didn't like, called Elon Musk makes his cars in China. | ||
| He's been to Russia, and who knows where he goes because he has his own private plane. | ||
| He's the richest man in the world. | ||
| And the other thing is, he doesn't have it. | ||
| I don't know where in the Constitution or in the legislature, in any of the papers, but I thought that he had to be voted in, not just given permission. | ||
| And then they fired the guys that wouldn't give him access to our top security. | ||
| So everybody that doesn't read or doesn't pay attention needs to pay attention. | ||
| It's only been two weeks, and people are going broke. | ||
| It's crazy. | ||
| You know, read that paper on 2025. | ||
| That'll scare the hell out of you. | ||
| And he's doing just what he said. | ||
| That's Project 2025. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Huh? | |
| Project 2025? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| And I really, you know, when Trump says something, like he said, you know, he was going to be a dictator. | ||
| I took him, you have to take him for what he says. | ||
| And I don't know what these other people hear, but that's the way I feel about it. | ||
| And I think that the Congress and the senators and the people that love this country and my father and my husband and all those who fought for this country, I think this is a dog on shame. |