This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.

I'm your host, Greg Sargent.

Little by little, Republicans in Congress are waking up to an uncomfortable fact.

Their own voters are in revolt against Elon Musk's efforts to tear down the federal government.

New reports from CNN and the bulwark show that Republicans are quietly seeking to tamp down voter angst in all kinds of revealing ways.

These are voters in Republican districts, which means they're Trump voters. Musk is screwing them over,

but very few elected Republicans will say this publicly, even though

Musk is usurping their power, which is exactly the problem here.

We're talking about what this all means with Elizabeth Saunders, a professor of political science

and author of a new piece for foreign affairs about the threat posed by Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

Elizabeth, thanks for coming on.

My pleasure. Great to be here. Thanks for having me.

So the bulwark reports that a number of House Republicans are sending their constituents' letters designed to tamp down concern about Musk's doge activities.

One Republican admits to concerns about Musk's doge activities. One Republican admits to concerns about

Musk's overreach and his access to private government data. Bullwork reports that this is causing,

quote, increasing political anxiety for GOP lawmakers. Meanwhile, CNN reports that these Republicans

are dealing with a deluge of calls

from worried constituents. Elizabeth, this is in districts that Republicans represent. That

means a lot of Republican voters are unhappy about Musk. What do you think of all this?

Well, I think it's a very interesting development because we've certainly seen some pretty shocking reversals among

Republican senators that expressed deep uneased based on their subject matter expertise with

some of Trump's nominees for cabinet positions. So I'm thinking here of Joni Ernst and her concerns about Pegzab at the

...