WASHINGTON, D.C. – Democrats in Congress are preventing mad about Elon Musk’s e-mail to federal staff asking them to call 5 issues they achieved in every week, with one consultant saying the DOGE chief’s calls for are “unlawful” and one other claiming Musk “has no thought what he’s doing.”
“It is solely controversial as a result of it is towards the legislation, and we’re a rustic of legal guidelines, so that you simply should observe the legislation,” mentioned Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass. advised Fox Information Digital. “The underside line is Elon Musk and Trump do not appear to care about following the legislation, as you and I are anticipated to observe.”
At Musk’s route, the Workplace of Personnel Administration (OPM) despatched an e-mail titled, “What did you do final week?” to federal workers. The message known as on staff to submit 5 accomplishments over the previous week or face attainable termination.
Lawmakers spoke to Fox Information Digital about DOGE. (Fox Information Digital)
In response, a number of federal company leaders, together with the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers, suggested workers that compliance with the e-mail was not essential.
For a lot of, the e-mail represented what they consider to be the brand new administration’s disregard for the legislation and the worth of federal staff.
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CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk speaks on the Conservative Political Motion Convention (CPAC) on the Gaylord Nationwide Resort Resort And Conference Middle on Feb. 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Maryland. (Picture by Andrew Harnik/Getty Photographs)
This week, the American Federation of Federal Employees and a number of other different teams launched a lawsuit towards the OPM, arguing that the workplace can not hearth staff who don’t adjust to the e-mail’s calls for.
Fox Information Digital spoke with Democrats and Republicans from the Home and Senate to ask why the e-mail ended up being so controversial.
“Who’s Elon Musk to be sending out one thing like that?” mentioned Rep. Jesus Garcia, D-Illinois.
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“Somebody who hasn’t been vetted or who hasn’t come earlier than Congress attempting to intimidate folks into doing issues they do not need to do. It is unlawful. It is most likely unconstitutional,” he went on. “And that is why staff are pushing again.”
Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vermont, mentioned that in her view, “it is clear that Elon Musk has no thought what he is doing.”
Balint provides a victory speech on election night time on Nov. 8, 2022, in Burlington, Vermont, after being elected Vermont’s first lady and first brazenly homosexual particular person to signify Vermont in Congress. (AP/Lisa Rathke)
“He has no thought, he is incompetent,” Balint mentioned. “He sends out emails that contradict one another, generally inside a 24-hour interval. He sends out info that contradicts the those who Trump has appointed to be Cupboard secretaries. So, I believe the type of this mystique round him as being some type of a genius could be very shortly being proven to be really simply an phantasm.”
Musk known as the e-mail a “pulse verify” to see if any supposed authorities workers had been fraudulently gathering paychecks with out really working. President Donald Trump backed the message, saying it was “nice” and that for those who don’t reply the e-mail “you’re fired.”
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President Donald Trump delivers remarks throughout a Cupboard assembly on the White Home on Feb. 26, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Photographs)
Washington State Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal mentioned the results of Musk and DOGE firing anybody who doesn’t reply to e-mail could be vital.
“The havoc that it might wreak on folks to not reply an e-mail and have that represent termination is excessive for People throughout this nation,” she advised Fox Information Digital. “If folks cannot management air visitors within the skies, it makes People unsafe. If veterans do not have workers to truly give them advantages, and federal staff are fired in our Nationwide Parks, and Medicaid and Medicare and Social Safety means common People usually are not going to get their checks.”
“This isn’t a software program firm that you would be able to blow up and no person notices,” she went on. “That is the federal authorities that gives essential advantages to American folks in every single place.”
Jayapal mentioned the results of Musk and DOGE firing anybody who doesn’t reply to e-mail could be vital. (Getty Photographs)
Providing a barely completely different take, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., mentioned that the e-mail was an instance of “cancel tradition,” and that Musk’s objective was to “have federal workers who’re professionals get replaced by loyal minions who will not serve the folks.”
“His e-mail was all in regards to the cancel tradition, canceling professionals within the authorities, delivering good companies, and changing them with loyalists who’ve no real interest in sustaining the imaginative and prescient of our ‘We the Folks’ democracy,” he mentioned.
Republicans, in the meantime, stood firmly behind DOGE and mentioned Musk’s e-mail was a superbly cheap request.
“I believe we needs to be very, very grateful for what Musk is doing,” Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, advised Fox Information Digital. “We have probably the most entrenched forms in all of world historical past, and if we’re really going to struggle again towards waste, fraud and abuse, you have to do issues a little bit bit in a different way.”
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Rep. Chip Roy speaks throughout a information convention on the U.S. Capitol Constructing on Jan. 29, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Getty Photographs)
“Asking federal workers a easy query of, ‘What did you do immediately? What did you accomplish this previous week?’ I believe it is about as fundamental because it will get,” he went on. “I am thrilled that he is doing it. I believe that each single worker who did not reply to him the primary time needs to be fired, however they’re being gracious and giving them a second likelihood.”
“Backside line is all people who works for the federal government should be responsive,” mentioned Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.
“I perceive why it is disruptive if it is not the way in which issues have been accomplished,” he added. “However it’s the president who calls the pictures, and the president yesterday reiterated that he thought it was vital for the individuals who work for him, who work up by means of the federal government to the president to reply to what they’re doing.”
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Donald Trump, left, and Elon Musk, proper (Getty Photographs)
Roy famous that he believed Musk was “doing an ideal job with DOGE,” and that the common American understands the e-mail, “as a result of they actually should reply for what they’re doing of their actual job.”
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“The president has the power and the dedication to determine whether or not persons are upholding their job and doing the work that they are purported to do they usually’re employed to do,” he defined. “It is type of sending a shock to the system as a result of it is forcing folks to do what they need to be doing all the way in which down the branches of presidency.”
Fox Information Digital reached out to the White Home’s DOGE spokesperson for remark, however didn’t hear again by press time.
