Republican strategist Scott Jennings tore into a CNN panel Tuesday, accusing them of peddling unproven allegations against Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Chairman Elon Musk.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday giving DOGE additional oversight over hiring government employees, slightly more than three weeks after he established the department within hours of taking office on Jan. 20. Jennings went off after panelist Bakari Sellers claimed there was a lack of transparency from the panel, accusing Musk of having agency inspectors general investigating him fired and giving “friends of his” access to government contracts.
“You guys are way out over your skis with accusations and innuendo,” Jennings said. “You have no way — I mean, what you’re essentially alleging would be the biggest corruption in any of our lifetimes. You have no way in the world of making those accusations in a credible way, but yet you’re out here doing it.”
“Just to clarify, because I also think you‘re accusing me of saying that these things are happening, I‘m just saying —” “CNN Newsnight” host Abby Phillip said before Jennings cut her off. “No, did you hear what they just said? They literally just accused Elon Musk of the biggest corruption we’ve ever seen.”
The Trump administration announced plans for layoffs that targeted over 95% of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) workforce Thursday, The New York Times reported. Democratic members of Congress joined protests outside the headquarters of USAID and the Treasury Department Feb. 4 after Department of Government Efficiency Co-Chairman Elon Musk announced plans to close down USAID.
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The Trump administration is appealing injunctions imposed by federal judges targeting DOGE’s efforts to oversee federal spending.
“Scott, what I said was that Elon Musk’s companies were being investigated by the government. The people investigating him have been fired, their offices disbanded,” Phillip said. “Those are both facts. So the question is, how do we know that Elon is not benefiting from it? And the answer is, we don’t know. You even would acknowledge that we don’t know.”
“But if you‘re going to accuse me of that, please, Scott, tell me what I said that was incorrect,” Sellers said, prompting Jennings to respond, “You just said that Elon Musk is working at the behest of the president in what would amount to the biggest corruption scheme to enrich himself that we’ve ever seen.”
United States District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the District of Rhode Island, a contributor to Democratic causes before being named to the federal bench during the Obama administration, threatened Trump with criminal contempt charges over the spending freeze Trump ordered.
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“I think you‘re out over your skis. I don’t think you know that,” Jennings said as Sellers asked, “Was he under investigation by the FAA?”
“I think you guys are overblowing the whole thing,” Jennings said.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.