CNN anchor Pamela Brown grilled Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) on Thursday about Republicans’ endorsement or silence as right wing billionaire Elon Musk continues his illegal and unconstitutional raid of the federal government.
Musk is already withholding congressionally mandated funds to programs he believes to be wasteful spending, shutting down agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and has in recent days gained access to sensitive data at federal agencies and directed young assistants to seize power through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk is doing all this with zero congressional oversight. An effort by Democrats to call the unelected billionaire to testify before the House Oversight Committee was defeated by Republicans on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Brown flipped the script on Gill in a tense interview by asking the Texas Republican if he would support the idea of Democrats appointing someone like liberal billionaire George Soros to do exactly what Musk is doing.
“So you’re all on board with what Elon Musk and his team of staffers are doing. Would you be okay if Democrats were doing this, if, for example, George Soros came in under a Democratic administration and had his staffers gain access to sensitive programs about Americans and their personal information and dismantling agencies. Would you be OK with that?” Brown asked in a clip highlighted by Mediaite.
Gill dodged the question saying that he is amazed that Democrats are “acting as if this is something that’s novel.”
“I’ve been talking to my constituents for months and months and months about Elon Musk coming in, having a serious business person coming in and using his team to go through the federal budget with a fine tooth comb,” he continued. “There is nothing that’s surprising about what’s happening right now.”
Brown noted that it is unprecedented to have the world’s richest man and his team of unelected staffers without security clearances dismantle federal agencies and gain access to Americans’ sensitive information.
“Would you be okay if Democrats did this?” Brown pressed. “If a George Soros came in with his staffers and did the same thing that Musk is doing, would you accept that?”
Gill dodged the question again.
“What’s unprecedented is spending our taxpayer dollars on left wing partisan political projects all over the globe,” he answered.
“The fury that we’re seeing from the other side of the aisle isn’t about this waste. It’s not about paying for a left wing activism on the other side of the globe,” he added. “It’s that it’s being exposed finally. And that’s what the American people want.”
