It’s not that the arguments against the Department of Government Efficiency from the Democrats are bad.
They are, mind you, but it’s probably best to say that it’s not just that they’re bad. It’s that, when they’re not specious, they’re flat-out wrong — and provably so.
The most egregious of these was trotted out yet again by Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine on “Fox News Sunday” this weekend, when he claimed President Donald Trump’s administration was waging a war on veterans, and that DOGE posted “classified information” on its website.
That “classified information,” as it turns out, is from a readily available federal database — and the last time “status data” was posted to it was in May of 2024.
For those of you who don’t follow these whole “election” things (looking at you, Democrats), the president then — nominally, at the very least — was Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.
The exchange came after host Shannon Bream quoted a piece by The Hill opinion columnist Liz Peek, which accurately summed up why attacks on DOGE are likely a losing cause for the Democrats: “Their relentless attacks on Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency make it clear which side they’re on. Spoiler alert: It’s not the side of the taxpayer.”
When asked if he worried about outrage from the Democrats toward Elon Musk and DOGE as they uncover government waste, Kaine said that his outrage wasn’t at the “bromance” between Trump and Musk or any of that, but about this “classified information.”
“I think my outrage is about who they’re hurting,” Kaine said.
“I don’t like letting unelected officials post — yesterday, the DOGE guys posted classified information on their website, and they hadn’t realized, ‘Oh, we didn’t realize that agency was a classified agency,’” he continued.
Would we have even learned the truth about Kaine’s lie if it weren’t for Elon Musk’s X?
Yes: 0% (0 Votes)
No: 100% (2 Votes)
“You shouldn’t let people run rampage through offices that have classified information.”
Kaine: “Yesterday the DOGE guys post classified information on their website, and they had to realize, ‘Oh, we didn’t realize that agency was a classified agency.’ You shouldn’t let people rampage through offices that have classified information.” pic.twitter.com/3UNozwJ4KZ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 16, 2025
The full interview for context:
WATCH: @SenTimKaine on DOGE downsizing the federal government and how the cuts are negatively impacting veterans. pic.twitter.com/DqEBrRnbuE
— Fox News Sunday (@FoxNewsSunday) February 16, 2025
Now, it’s unclear what data specifically he’s referencing, but it’s likely a federal workforce tracker that was introduced to the website earlier this week — the earliest capture of it on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine was actually on Feb. 12, which was days before the interview — but it was the biggest piece of outrage-bait coming out of DOGE during the week.
“The DOGE website, updated earlier this week to include information about the federal workforce across agencies, contained details about the headcount and budget for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), an intelligence agency responsible for designing and maintaining U.S. intelligence satellites,” ABC News reported.
The problem with this: Those data were already accessible to anyone who wanted to access it, thanks to the fact it was uploaded to the Office of Personnel Management’s FedScope website.
Again, last updated data: May 2024, and according to DOGE’s response to Rupar’s clip, this information was actually available since March of last year:
This is inaccurate. The referenced “classified information” is actually public FedScope data, posted publicly by OPM (Office of Personnel Management) in March 2024. https://t.co/VjECnq2KKj https://t.co/AHwLx3jmfu
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) February 17, 2025
In fact, peruse the DOGE website and virtually everything is linked to sources that are available to anyone who bothered to search for them, because it’s information that’s supposed to be publicly available anyway.
But again, this is another case of “Elon Musk has your data OMG panic!” syndrome, something the Democrats have been relying on in order to create fear and loathing of DOGE.
Because the world’s richest man, who previously launched PayPal, a financial services company which was trusted to collect data from millions of people, really wants your Social Security number and personal data to do something untoward with it, but it’s safe with middle-class federal government bureaucrats.
Is that really the argument we’re expected to buy?
Eventually, people see through that if they’re willing to — but declassifying data sounds far more treacherous. If only the accusation were based in fact, Tim Kaine might really be onto something there. Too bad it’s provably wrong, but at least he put in the effort to sell it, if not to check it.
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