Cnn
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After almost three weeks in the minority, the Democrats finally settled in a target to rally to: Elon Musk.
The party and the Allied groups this week presented themselves at the gates of the agencies affected by the Ministry of Efficiency of the Musk government, organized rallies and press conferences qualifying the ally of the President an “unadred billionaire” and presented legislation to postpone administration’s efforts to the administration’s efforts to the efforts of the administration’s efforts to the efforts of the administration’s efforts to the efforts of the administration to the efforts From the efforts of the administration to the efforts of the efforts of the administration to the efforts of the administration’s efforts to the efforts of the administration to the efforts of the administration’s efforts to the efforts of the administration to the efforts of the efforts of the efforts From administration to administration’s efforts to the efforts of administration’s efforts to administration efforts to administration efforts to administration efforts to administration to administration to administration to administration to administration to administration to administration to administration Eliminate agencies And Force federal employees.
The coordinated effort comes after weeks of democrats struggling with the way of opposing the new administration after a deadly election in which President Donald Trump Made of gains with key parts of the democratic base and the Republicans overthrew the Senate and held the room.
For Democrats, Musk has both become an ideal Boogeyman and the face of billionaire influence in the Trump administration.
A recent Quinnipiac survey revealed that 53% of voters disapproved of Musk played a leading role in the administration, including 90% of the Democrats, 56% of the self -employed and 19% of the Republicans.
In the weeks preceding the inauguration of Trump, Democrats Mockingly called Musk as president After having helped to torpor a set of bipartite expenses while President Joe Biden warned against the “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of very a few ultra-rich people” and the Start of an oligarchy In the United States. Democrats have also noted that Tesla CEO – who spent $ 290 million Boosting Trump and other Republicans in the 2024 elections – received a privileged seat during the inauguration, as well as other billionaires such as the Meta -PDG Mark Zuckerberg and the founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos.
Now, after less than three weeks, the aggressive approach of Musk to reduce the federal government has given democrats the confrontation they have sought.
“This fight does not only concern USAID or the Ministry of Education, it is a question whether the people and their elected representatives should govern, or if the richest man in the world can call every blow” said representative Greg Casar, a Democratic Texas, said CNN in an interview. “This is exactly the fight that Democrats need to pick up to win up with indecisive voters.”
The Democrats had been “slow” in their response to Trump until this week, said Leah Greenberg, co-director of the indivisible basic project.
“Our request for Democrats at the moment is that if it is a crisis, you should act as if it was a crisis,” said Greenberg. “We have to do things to specify that it is absolutely not normal.”
Democratic legislators, liberal groups and surveillance organizations condemned Musk’s efforts to dismantle the United States agency for international development and reduce government size by offering to pay federal workers who agree to resign until In September as part of an agreement that Congress did not authorize. They also made access to access by Musk associates at Treasury Department’s payment system, who pay funding on behalf of the federal government.
Critics of Musk’s efforts have warned that DOGE workers now have access to the private financial data of millions of Americans and could interfere with key federal payments, including tax reimbursements and social security checks. Many have criticized the lack of supervision of the congress in his work, arguing that Musk and his allies could abuse data to which they have accessed.
“Does he use his access to extraordinary quantities of confidential and sensitive data to take advantage of his own personal interests? We don’t know, ”said Greenberg. “We have no reason to presume in good faith on the part of one of these people because they work simultaneously to remove each check or possible balance which could assure us that this is above the edge.”
Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent of Vermont who has long criticized the role played by billionaires in American politics, said that he was most concerned about administration’s efforts to interrupt unilaterally programs, which he said , was “illegal and unconstitutional”.
“The president wants to close the USAID? He can ask one of his republican friends to present legislation to do this, and this will be debated, “said Sanders. “He will not pass, but will be debated. He does not have the unilateral power, in particular through an unleashed civil servant like M. Musk. »»
A house surveillance committee Vote to assign muskDirected by the Democrats, was blocked by the Republicans on Wednesday.
“It allows a small group of unleashed, secret people, to take place through the executive branch access the private data that the millions of Americans need, and God knows what they are going to do with it,” said the Head of the minority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, about Doge Tuesday on Tuesday.
Schumer and the chief of the Hakeem Jeffries House minority presented Tuesday the law “stop the steal”, legislation aimed at Doge and Musk which “would prevent illegal interference in the payment systems of the Treasury Department and protect the Americans across the country, ”said Schumer.
Administration officials said that Doge workers have “reading alone” access to data. A White House official said that Musk and his team work “in full compliance with federal law, appropriate security authorizations and as an employee of the agencies concerned, not as an external advisers or entities”.
“DOGE operations can be considered disruptive by persons rooted in the federal bureaucracy, who resist the change,” the manager said in a statement.
The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday that Musk would challenge himself in areas where he had conflicts of interest. She added that Trump had been elected with a mandate to make the government more effective.
“He campaigned across the country with Elon Musk, promising that Elon would lead the Ministry of Effectiveness of the Government and both, with a large team around them, were going to examine the revenues of this federal government and S ‘Ensure that he is responsible for American taxpayers, “said Leavitt.
Other Republicans have rejected the framing of Democrats. In response to the rallying cry of the Democrats according to which “no one voted for Elon Musk”, Vice-President JD Vance wrote on X: “They voted for Donald Trump who promised several times that Elon Musk A eliminated unnecessary expenses in our government. ”
For some Democrats, in particular those of the GOP districts, Musk serves as a leaf in a way that the president cannot.
“My voters, and a majority of this country, put Trump in the White House, not this unleashed and bizarre billionaire,” wrote the representative Jared Golden of Maine – one of a dozen Democrats in a seat that Trump won – wrote on the Musk X website. “The musk is walking on the president’s toes – making decisions without its approval, continuing its own program. If I had an employee who crushed me as musk is away from Trump, I don’t think I would sit and take it. »»
Pat Dennis, the president of the American Bridge 21st century, a super democratic PAC focused on “opposition research” on the Republicans, said that even if Trump is still the main motivator, Musk seemed ready to damage the administration .
“Musk acts as if you have mainly given Paul Ryan a whole bunch of stimulants, then release him in the government,” said Dennis, referring to the former room speaker and Hawk Deficit. “This is a level of cost reduction regardless of the impact on everyday people, to which Trump would have opposed.”
An advisor to several Democratic donors told CNN that Democrats should continue to focus on Musk.
“We have to go to places and say:” Elon Musk now has your social security number “,” said the advisor.
However, they have recognized that the elected democrats are still absorbing the movements that take place quickly from the new Trump administration. While the Democrats were considering a range of scenarios for the first 100 days of the Trump administration, “Elon Musk which takes over the government’s payment systems was not on the bingo card,” said the person.
“It’s been only two weeks, and it’s worse than we thought,” they added.
The organized work also tries to focus on Musk’s work. AFL-CIO, the main federation of the country’s unions, launched a new campaign on Wednesday presented as “the department of people who work to live” to repel the work of Doge.
“If Elon Musk can invent his own government department, workers can also,” said Liz Shuler, president of AFL-CIO, in CNN in an interview. “It is simply unprecedented. We have never seen this kind of influence by billionaire CEOs on the standards of our government. »»
The campaign, which should include digital advertisements and sender, will aim to hold “responsible” Musk, said Shuler, and amplify the stories of workers who can be affected by Doge’s efforts – air traffic controllers who play a Key role in the Flying Public Safety to Mine Workers depending on the safety standards of workers established by safety at work and health administration.
“What we are trying to do is put a human face directly on the fact that they are not only bureaucracies. They are not sleepy, tired, old, obsolete and outdated agencies. They are real people, ”said Shuler.