'Just a stupid move': Morning Joe begs Congress to halt Elon Musk's latest 'crazy' scheme
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough on Monday blasted Donald Trump's unelected adviser and benefactor Elon Musk for working to shut down a crucial component of U.S. foreign policy.
The tech mogul claims the president agreed to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, which administers billions of dollars in humanitarian, development and security assistance to more than 100 countries, and the "Morning Joe" host harshly criticized the move as strategically short-sighted and likely illegal.
"Just to talk about, for anybody that might want to know, why the United States engages in USAID, it's not just charity," Scarborough said. "It is the ultimate soft power that allows America to have an advantage over China and Russia in the Third World, in the global south, because the United States is there actually not just mining for minerals and precious metals, but also helping people.
"Harry Truman called in Herbert Hoover at the end of World War II, and there was the greatest humanitarian crisis the world had known, and Herbert Hoover, who Truman had run against basically his entire adult life, said bare subsistence means hunger. Hunger means communist, it means communism, and they started a program to make sure that there was not starvation across Europe and the rest of the world, and so those that are cheering, all these things that we're talking about this morning, let's make no mistake about it. We're going to be talking about the gutting of the FBI, the fact that you have the Trump administration actually looking inward to purge the FBI instead of looking outward at threats from al Qaeda, threats at ISIS, threats from China.
"You can say the same thing about the Pentagon. They're so busy running around trying to take generals' pictures off the wall, they're going to take their eye off the ball. Many people fear, and on USAID make no mistake of it, we actually collect data. We collect intel across Africa on al Qaeda's growth, al Qaeda's movement, what ISIS is trying to do there, what China is trying to do there."
"Yes, there is the carrot, but there is also the stick for our enemies," Scarborough added. "That's why they're there, and to have the world's richest man go in and say he's going to basically tear this organization to the ground, not only will cause immeasurable suffering across the globe, it also will put us in a strategic disadvantage. This is strategic. What he's talking about doing is, I'm sorry, it is stupid, and to try to vilify this organization so he can destroy it? That's not just bad for people who are suffering, the poorest of the poor, the most disadvantaged. Just strategically, you talk to anybody in any administration and they will tell you it is just a stupid strategic move."
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The Trump administration and secretary of state Marco Rubio have enacted an unprecedented freeze on most of USAID's programs around the world and placed much of the agency's leadership on leave, and Scarborough called on Congress to step up and save the programs lawmakers have already approved.
"Elon Musk is going in there, they're basically, you know, doing everything but breaking down the doors and gaining access to classified information," Scarborough said. "He's not even a government employee and, again, my question is when are the courts going to step in, and also where are members of Congress? Yeah, Republicans who are in charge, who authorized all of these programs, voted for all of these programs, appropriated money for all these programs, which the Constitution of the United States gives them the power to do. When are they going to stand up and go, 'Wait, wait a second — this is this is not your power, we are still three co-equal branches.'"
"Talk about that and also talk about the muddle, the muddled message," he added. "One day the freeze is in effect, the next day they say the freeze is not in effect. One day the USAID freeze in effect. The next day, Marco Rubio says, 'Oh, no, the humanitarian assistance moves forward,' and then the next day, 'Well, no, it doesn't look like it is now.' Musk is going on on Twitter and just saying completely unfounded, crazy things about USAID."
Watch the video below or at this link.
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