House Democrats are escalating their attacks on Elon Musk‘s efforts to gut federal agencies and spending, trying not to get distracted by President Donald Trump’s pitch to own the Gaza Strip.
Democrats sought to subpoena the billionaire head of the Department of Government Efficiency on Wednesday. The vote failed 19-20 in the House Oversight Committee with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) abstaining.
Khanna and Musk engaged in a heated back-and-forth on X, with the California Democrat stating that a procedural vote was called “without notice” and he “like 8 others didn’t make it there on time.” He asked for another vote on the subpoena.
“Musk’s attacks on our institutions are unconstitutional,” Khanna said. “He should be subpoenaed & answer to our committee.”
Musk responded very bluntly: “Don’t be a d***,” to which Khanna berated him, noting that he and the X owner have known each other “a long time.”
“You can’t stop payments that Congress has authorized and appropriated,” Khanna said. “Make recommendations to Congress, but don’t stop payments. That’s Article I. Also, let’s debate why we need the DOE.”
The subpoena effort comes as Musk has drawn backlash from Democrats for prodding into the Treasury Department’s federal payment system, with Democratic lawmakers blasting Republicans for what they say is hypocrisy for allowing a non-elected official to survey taxpayer information.
As newly confirmed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was expected to meet with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Wednesday, Reps. Gwen Moore (D-WI) and Judy Chu (D-CA) forced their way into the speaker’s office to demand answers on Musk’s decisions.
Moore and Chu said they raised concerns about Musk’s ability to access or even manipulate Treasury data.
“He said he was trying to find out,” Moore said, referring to Johnson. “So I said that that was very distressing to me, that even you don’t know, and you’re the speaker of the House and you have no idea what’s happening.”
“He actually said, he asked the same questions himself,” Chu added. “How could you be speaker of the House and not know what’s going on when this huge thing is going on, where millions of Americans’ private information is being stolen.”
Musk turned heads by gutting the U.S. Agency for International Development, becoming one of DOGE’s major cuts to government spending after Musk said Trump gave him the green light to overhaul the agency.
Democrats are laser-focused on using their messaging strategies to berate Musk for what they say is an overstep of authority — so much so that they are ignoring the revolving door of comments made by the president over the last few days.
The Democratic caucus met on Tuesday to discuss the USAID overhaul and Musk’s overreach into the federal government, and Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) confirmed to the Washington Examiner that Trump’s comments for the United States to take ownership of the Gaza Strip did not come up.
“It shouldn’t shock anybody that we don’t run through everything that the president says in caucus to respond to,” Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) said during a press conference on Wednesday. “It did not come up, but it is very clear that what the president talked about would make our country less safe.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) ignored Trump’s Gaza ownership comments altogether in a statement, urging for a two-state solution and stating that “America must support those Palestinians who legitimately desire a life filled with self-determination and peace in Gaza and the West Bank.”
While leadership is steering clear of engaging on Trump’s comments, individual Democrats are speaking out about the issue.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), who serves as ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, brushed off Trump’s comments.
“I think it’s just a knee-jerk response to an issue,” Thompson said Wednesday morning. “It doesn’t appear to be planned out. And obviously, that’s not how you work world issues.”
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) also called it “not a real proposal,” but noted that Trump’s remarks signal to Arab countries “that the policies of the United States of the last several decades are shifting.”
Thompson believes Palestinians deserve a home but “for us to be the primary reconstructionist comes with a significant price tag.” He also pointed out that Trump’s remarks famously come and go like the wind.
“Again, all I know is what he said,” Thompson said. “Today’s another day. He’ll probably come [up] with something else.”
Progressive Democrats, who largely led the vocal opposition to Israel after the war between the Jewish state and Hamas fractured the caucus, are blasting Trump’s remarks as genocide against the Palestinian people.
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“We have known that this is Trump’s plan for the Gaza Strip,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said. “It is the definition of ethnic cleansing.”
Jacobs echoed Ocasio-Cortez’s statements, stating that Trump, “who said he was going to bring troops home,” proposing an idea that “we would take over and occupy another part of the world, makes no sense.”
