Illegal Trump-Musk Power Grab at USAID Suddenly Becomes Bigger Scandal
THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent
The New Republic
4.4 • 803 Ratings
🗓️ 4 February 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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| 0:00.0 | Hey Anna, I've got a new secret weapon for print. |
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| 0:12.0 | If you need it, we print presented by the DSR Network. |
| 0:31.6 | I'm your host, Greg Sargent. |
| 0:49.5 | President President Donald Trump has empowered Elon Musk to undertake a gutting of the U.S. Agency for International Development that is pretty clearly illegal. |
| 0:54.8 | And this week, on numerous fronts, this has suddenly become a much bigger scandal. |
| 1:03.6 | First, we learned that Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency is taking over the agency and locking its workers out of internal systems. |
| 1:09.9 | Then Musk himself confirmed that Trump had agreed with him that the agency must be shut down. |
| 1:14.9 | On Monday, Democratic lawmakers denounced the illegality of these moves. |
| 1:19.4 | They showed up at USAID offices to investigate and were barred from entering. |
| 1:21.6 | The Democrats are right. |
| 1:24.9 | Trump and Musk don't have the authority to do these things, and Democrats absolutely must find new ways to fight against |
| 1:28.9 | these extraordinary abuses of power. We're really glad to be talking today about all this with |
| 1:34.3 | one of the House Democrats who went to USAID to protest, Congressman Don Beyer. Thanks so much |
| 1:40.3 | for coming on, Congressman. Yeah, thanks, Craig. I really appreciate the opportunity to talk with you. |
| 1:45.6 | So, Congressman Elon Musk has confirmed that Trump agrees with him that USAID should be shut down. |
| 1:52.8 | Agency staffers were instructed not to come to work. |
| 1:56.2 | Hundreds have been locked out of the agency's computer systems. |
| 1:59.8 | On Monday, some of you went to the agency |
| 2:01.6 | to investigate. Can you bring us up to date on the situation as of now Monday afternoon? |
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