(DCNF)—Panelists on “Morning Joe” expressed concerns Monday morning that Democrats in Congress have failed to mount a “cohesive response” to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and State Department audit of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) foreign funds, which have previously funneled millions of taxpayer funds into promoting far-left social causes abroad.
Representatives from DOGE and the State Department gained access to the USAID headquarters Friday night to review the agency’s spending in order to align it with U.S. foreign policy after a brief standoff with employees of the agency, ABC News reported. MSNBC host Ali Vitali and panelist Jonathan Lemire both questioned if “the other branch of government” would counter Elon Musk’s effort to shut down the $40 billion government agency.
“So, Ali, the question is, is the other branch of government going to do anything?” Lemire asked. “Elon Musk said over the weekend, well — I’m paraphrasing here — but more or less said, it’s easy to get work done when your opponents take the weekend off. And we have seen, first of all, a lack of cohesive response of Democrats, who seem a little slow here on most issues, but also Republicans who do have majorities, who do have the ability to say, look, actually, these programs have been in place for decades,” Lemire continued. “They’ve had bipartisan support. There are even national security reasons to keep them going. But yet so far, they seem completely muted and afraid to stand up to [President Donald] Trump and Musk. Is there any way that changes?”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the decision to shutter the agency, claiming that his concerns about its oversight began when he was in Congress and noting that the agency is “completely unresponsive” and “not functioning” as intended.
“The attitude that USAID has adopted over the years is ‘no, we are independent of the national interests, we fund programs irrespective of whether it is aligned or not aligned with the foreign policy,” Rubio told reporters while in El Salvador on Monday, adding that the agency had been “completely uncooperative” with efforts to oversee spending.
“We’re spending taxpayer money here, these are not donor dollars, these are taxpayer dollars,” Rubio added.
Responding to Lemire, Vitali said, “Yeah. I mean, we started the program talking about how when power is given, people don’t just willfully give it back. And yet we’re watching in Congress the very central power of the purse that Congress has had forever. They’re now seemingly OK, especially the majority party, with giving it over to the White House and the Trump Administration on this.”
“Look no further than the fact that Elon Musk went on X overnight, did a Spaces held court online. And with him was Senator Joni Ernst, who was effectively backing him up when he said that he wanted to get rid of USAID. She made the point that she said we want to help starving children effectively in other countries, but that they’re afraid the money is not going where it’s supposed to be going,” Vitali added.
“The way that USAID does its work is it funds non-governmental organizations that then funnel the money where it needs to go into any of the number of these countries that USAID helps,” Vitali continued. “What Joe is talking about here is the hearts and minds approach to national security. And so, yes, Democrats have been flat footed in some cases or aggressive in others in pushing back against this administration. But when you’re in the minority, it’s hard to affect change, especially if no one in the majority party is willing to cross party lines and stand with you.”
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said during a Sunday night discussion with Musk on X that USAID officials threatened her after she sought information on humanitarian aid to Ukraine as part of Congressional oversight. Ernst’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation about the threats.
Elon Musk on threats made by USAID to U.S. Senator Joni Ernst: “It’s outrageous that a taxpayer-funded organization would threaten a U.S. Senator who is simply trying to figure out if American taxpayer money is being spent correctly and not fraudulently”
— America (@america) February 3, 2025
“This began years ago, when we were trying to figure out what they were doing with our American taxpayer dollars that were going to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. So, I wanted to know exactly how those dollars were being spent. But we got all kinds of threats from USAID because I was trying to exercise my oversight capacity in Congress,” Ernst told Musk. In a 2023 post on X, Ernst said USAID handed billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine to the United Nations.
One of the projects frozen by Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order mandating a review of foreign aid was a $50 million grant to Gaza for condoms, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a Jan. 29 briefing.
USAID also provided funding for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an outlet whose reporting on former Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York City was cited by then-Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman in the whistleblower complaint that led to Trump’s first impeachment.
Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona wrote USAID and three other agencies in December 2023, seeking information on funding sent to EcoHealth Alliance, which reportedly was involved in financing gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China. USAID provided at least $14 million to EcoHealth Alliance, according to Gosar.
USAID additionally spent $45 million on grants to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) scholarships in Burma and $21 million for renewable electricity in Lebanon, the Washington Times reported.
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