During the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s recent hearing on the “waste by the foreign aid bureaucracy,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) engaged in a tense exchange about Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Paul accused Blumenthal of launching a “personal attack” to his face during the hearing.
The February 13 hearing touched on President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut wasteful spending where DOGE recently moved to shut down USAID. In particular, Rand sounded off on a remark from Blumenthal suggesting that the efforts were “unserious” and a “conspiracy,” claiming it was insulting to himself and the witnesses present.
Blumenthal asserted, “Elon Musk is giving America the middle finger in seizing power, engaging in the biggest heist of information America’s history, delving into agencies and destroying them when his own corporations profit from contracts with them and controlling contracts in the future that will benefit his corporations that’s waste and fraud.
Paul responded, “The accusation or criticism has been made that this is an unserious hearing full of conspiracy theorists. Well, you know, the Democrats were asked to participate like they always are, the same way we were when we were the minority. They could have brought a witness. They chose not to even bring a witness.”
Calling out the examples of wasteful spending, he continued, “I can’t conjecture as to why, but maybe it’s because it’s so embarrassing the stuff that USAID is spending their money on. Who could possibly be against ending $2 million for sex change surgeries in Guatemala? I mean, who wants to defend that?”
Explaining why the administration needs to hold the government accountable, Paul said, “I don’t think any court is going to find that the executive branch cannot pause and audit spending. I mean to crassly say and just to jump as it’s illegal, it’s unlawful, it’s a tragedy, it’s constitutional chaos. Well, auditing spending is what government should do. It’s the traditional oversight that hasn’t been done in a generation. That’s why we’re finding this stuff been creeping up for a generation.”
Paul continued citing examples of absurd government spending such as “$4.8 million for social media influencers in Ukraine” and other forms of “waste and malfeasance.” Paul argued that the federal government should not be using tax dollars to spread its social agenda in other countries.
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Later in the hearing, Paul addressed Blumenthal head-on, stating, “We didn’t deny any witnesses. Your side did not before a witness. We did not deny any witnesses you could input for a witness so but I just think it’s disingenuous.” He continued, “Well, it is a personal attack on me. You call this unserious and a conspiracy, a bunch of conspiracy.”
Watch the exchange below:
Defending the witnesses, Paul added, “It’s an attack on our witnesses as well. That is a pejorative, and that’s name-calling, all right, you can.” The Kentucky Republican invited Blumenthal to refrain from such conduct and rebuke with facts and logic. “You’re welcome to object to things they say and have facts to counter them, but to call this an unserious hearing of conspiracy,” he said.
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.