Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem clashed with a CNN host over trust in government despite being a federal official while defending tech mogul Elon Musk’s access to sensitive data.
CNN moderator Dana Bash goaded Noem Sunday by noting how Republicans were once wary about “government, particularly unelected people, having access to personal data.”
“Well, we can’t trust our government anymore,” Noem replied.
That prompted the CNN host to remind her that “you are the government now.”
“Yes, that’s what I’m saying, is that the American people now are saying that we have had our personal information shared and out there in the public,” Noem shot back.
Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has obtained access to a trove of government data. On Saturday, a New York-based judge hit pause on DOGE’s read-only access to the Treasury Department’s financial systems which oversee trillions of dollars.
Critics and Democrats have grumbled over the level of access Musk has enjoyed and raised questions about the vetting process for the DOGE team.
One member of the team, known as “Big Balls” has a hacker background. Another member — a 25-year-old Rutgers University graduate — was caught making racist statements on social media last year including remarks like “Normalize Indian hate” and “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.”
That employee had been fired but Musk indicated that DOGE was bringing him back.
DOGE has been dependent on the Treasury data in particular, but also systems in other agencies to essentially conduct an audit on government spending and operations.
Noem defended Musk’s access to this data, arguing that it’s important to achieving the objective of rooting out government bloat.
“Elon Musk is part of the administration that is helping us identify where we can find savings and what we can do,” she argued. “He has gone through the processes to make sure that he has the authority that the president has granted him.”
The White House has maintained that Musk will be in charge of policing his own conflicts of interest throughout his time probing the vast federal government.
“I am today by the work that he’s doing by identifying waste, fraud, and abuse,” she said when pressed if she was “totally comfortable” with the access Musk enjoys.
“His information that he has is looking at programs, not focusing on personal data and information,” she went on. “We will be continuing to talk to him about what all he has access to. But this audit needs to happen.”
Trump has publicly revealed that he wants Musk to take a deep dive in the Department of Education and the Pentagon to uncover bloat and inefficiencies.
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