House Democrat: It'll take ‘many years' to ‘rebuild' from Musk ‘destruction'
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) said that it will take 'many years' for the federal government agencies to 'rebuild' from the 'destruction' by tech billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) panel.
Stansbury, who sits on the House Oversight Committee, said during a Thursday night appearance on MSNBC's 'The Last Word' that investigations into DOGE are 'ongoing' because many court cases are in play against the advisory panel, whose work has resulted in the firing of tens of thousands of federal workers led to effectively shutting down entire agencies.
'I mean, these actual investigations are ongoing because there's so many court cases against what's going on. You know, it was just announced today that a judge was allowing a court case that's actually led by the Attorney General of New Mexico to continue because of the lawless way in which they've been conducting their activities under DOGE,' Stansbury said
'So I think it's going to take, frankly, not only many years to rebuild from the destruction that Elon Musk unleashed on the government, but to even understand what they did inside these agencies,' Stansbury told host Lawrence O'Donnell. 'And also, I mean, the impacts are still being felt to this day.'
Musk served as a special government employee in President Trump's administration, advising DOGE on cost-cutting efforts in hopes of rooting out waste, fraud and abuse and slashing down the national debt.
Those efforts have received strong pushback from Democrats in Congress.
Musk said on Wednesday that he is leaving the White House, shortly after criticizing Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act,' a massive GOP budget bill that contains the president's legislative agenda.
'I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit … and it undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' Musk told 'CBS Sunday Morning.'
On Thursday night, Trump announced on Truth Social that he would hold a press conference with Musk on Friday at 1:30 p.m. EDT
'This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House,' the president wrote.
Stansbury told O'Donnell that the impact of DOGE's work is felt in her home state.
'Last night, I was talking to a doctor here in New Mexico, who said he can't renew his license to give prescriptions right now because DOGE messed up the DEA website,' the New Mexico Democrat said. 'So I mean, DOGE is still there, frankly, wreaking havoc on the federal government.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Elon Musk says SpaceX will launch its biggest Starship yet this year, but Mars in 2026 is '50/50'
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. SpaceX is still shooting for Mars next year with its giant Starship vehicle, despite some recent explosive hiccups with the megarocket. That was one of the takeaways from a new update that Elon Musk just gave about SpaceX's plans to help humanity settle the Red Planet — an ambitious goal that has driven the billionaire for decades. "Progress is measured by the timeline to establishing a self-sustaining civilization on Mars," Musk said in the 42-minute presentation, which SpaceX posted on X on Thursday (May 29), referring to the ongoing work with Starship. The huge rocket consists of two elements, both of which are designed to be fully and rapidly reusable: a booster called Super Heavy and a 171-foot-tall (52 meters) upper stage known as Starship, or simply Ship. Starship has nine test flights under its belt, the most recent of which launched on Tuesday (May 27). Ship reached space on that mission but experienced an anomaly shortly thereafter, apparently due to a propellant leak; SpaceX lost control of the vehicle, and it fell back to Earth in an uncontrolled reentry over the Indian Ocean. Ship also had issues — more serious ones, in fact — on Flight 7 and Flight 8, which launched in January and March of this year, respectively. On both occasions, Ship exploded less than 10 minutes into flight, raining debris down on the Atlantic. Musk seemed undaunted after Flight 9 on Tuesday, noting Ship's improved performance compared to the two previous liftoffs and stressing that the company has a wealth of data to analyze going forward. He struck a similar tone during the video update, which was filmed at Starbase, the newly incorporated South Texas city that serves as Starship's manufacturing and launch hub. "So with each launch — especially in the early days of Starship — each launch is about learning more and more about what's needed to make life multiplanetary and to improve Starship to the point where it can be taking, ultimately, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people to Mars," he added. Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built; the current version stands about 397 feet (121 m) tall. But it will get even larger in the coming years, if all goes according to plan. The next iteration of the vehicle, known as Version 3, will be 408 feet (124.4 m) tall when fully stacked, Musk said during the presentation. This is the variant that is expected to be capable of flying to, and helping to populate, Mars. Musk said it will be reliably and rapidly reusable, and the upper stage will be refueled in Earth orbit — a necessary ability for deep-space travel, as launching with all the necessary fuel onboard would leave little available mass for payload (such as people and habitat modules). Version 3 should fly soon: "We're aiming to launch for the first time at the end of this year," Musk said. If everything works out, Starship could be headed for Mars just a year or so later, he added. The Red Planet and Earth align properly for interplanetary missions just once every 26 months. The next such opportunity comes in 2026, in November and December, and SpaceX will try to hit it; the goal is to send five Starship Version 3 vehicles to the Red Planet to prove out the vehicle and its associated tech, Musk said. These first Mars Ships — and it will be just Ships, as Super Heavy will come back down to Earth shortly after liftoff for inspection and reflight — will be uncrewed. But they will carry some Optimus humanoid robots, which are built by Tesla, the car company that Musk leads. "That would be an epic picture — to see Optimus walking around on the surface of Mars," he said. It's unclear when we'll be getting those photos, however, because hitting the 2026 launch target will be tough. The biggest hurdle, according to Musk, will be mastering off-Earth refueling of Ship. "We'll try to make that opportunity, if we get lucky," Musk said. "I think we probably have a 50/50 chance right now." Related stories: — SpaceX likely to get FAA approval for 25 Starship launches in 2025 — SpaceX reached space with Starship Flight 9 launch, then lost control of its giant spaceship (video) — Starship and Super Heavy explained If Starship does indeed fly to Mars in 2026, SpaceX will ramp up the ambition and the activity, sending about 20 Ships to the Red Planet between 2028 and 2029. And there could be people on those flights. "Assuming the first missions are successful and they land successfully, we'd send humans on the next mission, and we really start building the infrastructure for Mars," Musk said. Or, "maybe, just to be safe, we might just do two landing episodes with Optimus and do the third one with humans," he added. "We'll see." SpaceX has already been scouting out possible sites for the Mars city. The right place will be relatively far from Mars' frigid poles, have accessible water ice and be relatively flat, to facilitate safe rocket landings and liftoffs. The leading candidate right now, according to Musk, is Arcadia Planitia, a volcanic plain in the Red Planet's northern hemisphere. One hundred Ships could fly to Mars during the third launch window from now (in 2030-2031), and 500 or so in the one after that (in 2033), according to one of the slides in Musk's presentation. The end goal is a self-sufficient city on Mars, which will be able to survive even if it somehow becomes cut off from our civilization on Earth. Such a city will likely consist of more than a million people, and require the transport of millions of tons of cargo across deep space. Such a city would, in Musk's view, be built and serviced with the aid of Starship — perhaps most efficiently by a future version that stands 466 feet (142 m) tall when fully stacked. When this city is mature, several thousand Ship upper stages could be arriving and leaving during each Earth-Mars launch window, he said. "This is, like, an incredible thing to have — this amazing city on Mars, the first city on another planet and a new world. And it's also an opportunity, I think, for the Martians to rethink how they want civilization to be," Musk said. "All right, let's get it done!"
Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
White House expected to pull NASA nominee Isaacman
The White House is likely to pull the nomination of Jared Isaacman to be the next NASA administrator, just days before he was set to receive a confirmation vote in the Senate, according to two people familiar with the matter. An entrepreneur and commercial astronaut, Isaacman advanced through the Senate's Commerce Committee in April and Senate Majority Leader John Thune moved to set up votes on his nomination when the Senate returns from the Memorial Day recess next week. The White House and NASA did not immediately comment. Trump often changes his mind about personnel and makes last-minute decisions. On Saturday, supporters of Isaacman began raising alarm about the possibility that the White House would pull the nomination. Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., said he 'strongly' opposes attempts to derail the nomination. Conservative personality Laura Loomer suggested on Saturday Isaacman's nomination is in danger because of the nominee's friendship with Elon Musk. Musk departed the administration this week. The billionaire nominee is one of Musk's business partners, and sought to alleviate concerns in April from some lawmakers about his closeness to the SpaceX founder. During his committee hearing, Isaacman broke with Musk and promised to focus on a lunar landing should he become NASA administrator; Musk had called that priority a 'distraction.' NASA has been without a Senate confirmed administrator since Jan. 20, when Bill Nelson stepped down from the position. Trump's budget proposal would slash funding for NASA and reduce its workforce, according to
Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
White House plans to pull nomination for NASA administrator
The White House is planning to withdraw the nomination of Jared Isaacman to be the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, a White House official confirmed to POLITICO. The sudden move comes days before the Senate was slated to vote on his nomination to lead NASA. Isaacman, a commercial astronaut and billionaire CEO of the payment processing company Shift4, has a long-standing relationship with Elon Musk, who this week left his post as a senior adviser to President Donald Trump and chief of the Department of Government Efficiency. It's not yet clear what the White House's reasoning is for the personnel change. Semafor was first to report on the plan. The White House official was granted anonymity to discuss not-yet-announced personnel moves. Senate Democrats for months have been critical of Isaacman's relationship with Musk, in light of his close ties to the White House and his role as CEO of SpaceX, one of NASA's largest contractors. In March, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk personally asked Isaacman to lead the agency, which Democrats honed in on during his confirmation hearing last month.
