CNN host puts James Comer on the spot over Elon Musk's conflicts of interest
CNN's Pamela Brown called out House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-KY) for Elon Musk's plan to use his political influence to hobble a business rival.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have vowed to cut $2 trillion in federal spending, and Comer provided a glimpse at the cuts the pair would recommend from their perch from the Donald Trump-backed advisory group, the "Department of Government Efficiency."
"The number of federal employees have skyrocketed over the past four years, especially the number that are working from home and not even coming to work," Comer said. "Government efficiency is gone, has gone down. There's a correlation with working from home and being efficient with the government. It may be different in the private sector, but in the government it's not working out, so everything is on the table. Every big expenditure over the past four years is on the table there. There's money in the infrastructure bill, there's money in Covid bills that haven't haven't been spent yet. We're going to look at that, and then you look at improper payments."
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'That's a big issue where the government sends money to to people fraudulently in Medicare, in Medicaid, where they send money fraudulently, and unemployment insurance, fraudulent IRS tax refunds, all of these improper payments are also on the table, and I think Musk and Ramaswamy have a have a good idea on how to prevent so much fraud and so many fraudulent payments in the federal government," Comer added.
Brown pointed out that Musk had billions of dollars in federal contracts, and she asked Comer whether he was concerned about possible conflicts of interest.
"Well, I think he's well aware of the fact that he has some contracts with the government," Comer said. "He's well aware of the fact that all eyes are going to be on him. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that any grant work, that any of Musk's major companies have done with the government has been a bad deal."
Brown then zeroed in on one particular proposal that Ramaswamy has made to claw back a $6.6 billion conditional loan commitment from the Department of Energy to electric vehicle startup Rivian, which is a competitor to Tesla, Musk’s $1 trillion car company, and Comer argued that the tech mogul was too wealthy to care.
"I think that's something that's going to be on the table – everything is going to be on the table," Comer said. "Musk is, you know, he's a very wealthy individual, and I don't think he's going to lose much sleep if members of Congress or people in DOGE think that, you know, something isn't right, that he's suggested that everything DOGE suggests may not be well received in Congress. But I will tell you this, I'm excited. I've had several meetings. Vivek Ramaswamy, my staff is communicating with their staff, and I think that a lot of their goals and objectives can be achieved. We're going to certainly try to do that."
"There are members of Congress, there are a few in my own party that are going to be obstructionists," Comer added. "They've been obstructionist since about the time I was born, but, you know, at the at the end of the day, we've got a job to do. I think the American people made it loud and clear, they're not happy with the direction Congress is going. They're not happy with how their tax dollars are being spent, and we're going to try and, I'll say this, there are a lot of Democrats that are wanting to participate in DOGE as well, even on my committee, so hopefully we can get some things done really quickly."
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