Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Home Oversight Committee, stated authorities employees ought to adjust to an Elon Musk order that’s being disputed by others.
Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity despatched out an electronic mail to federal employees on Saturday demanding that they ship him a abstract of 5 issues they’ve completed over the earlier week of labor or danger being fired.
The American Federation of Authorities Workers, the most important union of federal staff, slammed the directive. Union President Everett Kelley despatched a letter to the Workplace of Personnel Administration, which oversees authorities employees, and requested for Musk’s letter to be rescinded.
“Since last night, it has become even more clear that the thoughtless and bullying email was meant to intimidate federal employees and cause mass confusion,” Kelley wrote in an announcement launched at this time.
A number of company heads—led by Trump appointees—informed their employees not to answer Musk’s demand, citing attainable safety violations. Even some congressional Republicans, together with Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, have spoken out in opposition to the Musk directive.
However in a CNN look on Sunday, Connolly stated employees ought to comply for now.
“I guess if you can, cover yourself and do the five things you did last week just to be able to say, ‘well I did it,’” he suggested.
The professional-compliance message echoed persevering with weak point from Democratic leaders in response to Trump and Musk’s disruptive and bigoted actions within the government department. The occasion has supplied key congressional votes for a few of Trump’s nominees and has not deployed the complete arsenal of legislative instruments which are obtainable to decelerate Trump’s actions.
Connolly secured his place on the pivotal Oversight Committee after leaders within the Home Democratic caucus—most notably former Speaker Nancy Pelosi—backed Connolly’s bid over Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.
Whereas different Democratic leaders have been fumbling for a response to Trump, the administration has been in a public feud with Ocasio-Cortez. Tom Homan, Trump’s handpicked immigration czar, has even referred to as on the Division of Justice to analyze the congresswoman after she suggested migrant communities of their constitutional rights.
In distinction to Connolly’s pro-compliance message, Ocasio-Cortez lately wrote, “America is not for sale. We have an obligation to resist kings. We outnumber them. And they can be overwhelmed.”
Public polling has lately proven that voters are beginning to bitter on Musk and DOGE. As an example, solely 34% of respondents to a Washington Submit-Ipsos ballot stated they authorized of Musk whereas 55% in a Quinnipiac College ballot stated he had an excessive amount of energy. Democratic management remains to be behind the general public in terms of resisting Trump and Musk and there’s little proof thus far that they’ve any motivation to catch up.
