Rep. Rose DeLauro (D-CT) faced backlash for a previous claim she made on the House floor regarding the “America first” movement during a discussion about extending over $8 billion in aid to Taiwan and the broader Indo-Pacific Region. DeLauor, who is instantly recognizable from her purple hair, claimed that this supposed MAGA agenda would threaten “democracy and freedom” amid Chinese influence. Many conservatives have held a contemporary position that foreign aid should be retracted and allocated to struggling Americans.
Speaking before her colleagues in the lower chamber in April of last year, DeLauro said “Retreating from Asia, under the guise of putting quote ‘America First’ would be a colossal mistake, and would yield the fate of democracy and freedom in the western Pacific to the whims of an autocratic communist government of the People’s Republic of China.”
However, some commentators on social media pushed back against this claim. Journalist Michael Tracy questioned what DeLauro was “even talking about.” He added, “She chastises unknown people who want to “retreat from Asia under the guise of America First.” But virtually all her colleagues who scream “America First” are rabid anti-China zealots.” Tracy asserted that DeLauro’s claims were nonsensical.
More recently, DeLauro blasted House Republicans for supposedly cowering to “President Musk” after the multi-billionaire criticized a bipartisan spending bill that was proposed late last year. The Tesla founder led a campaign to thwart, generating massive support on social media. Musk has been seeking to drastically reduce government spending as part of his position in the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.).
DeLauro slammed her Republican colleagues who had “agreed on a bill” before Musk intervened. She added, “You know what? They got scared because President Musk told them. President Musk said, Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Shut the government down,” she said, criticizing the billionaire’s foray into Republican activism last year.
“Imagine, what does he know about what people go through is when the government shuts down, are his employees furloughed? Hell no. Is he furloughed? No. And when you shut the government down, people don’t get paid, and maybe if none of us got paid, if the government shut down, some people on the other side of the aisle would feel differently about where we’re going in this effort,” she continued.
DeLauro further lamented that disunity in spending bill negotiation had become commonplace in Congress in recent years. “We had an agreement, but you know, this is not this is not different from what we’ve experienced over the last year and a half or so, think about it. Biden McCarthy deal, come together, next day, walk away,” she said to her colleagues.
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Watch DeLauro’s stance on the foreign aid below:
She continued, Johnson Schumer deal, next day, walk away. And now this deal, walk away from it. Who do we trust in this body? And above all, can the American people trust us, trust us with their lives? When we had a moment when we came to agreement as Democrats and Republicans, and then we were able to say, let’s move forward this country.”
After being directly called out by the Connecticut Democrat, Musk spared no words in delivering a call for DeLauro to be expelled from Congress. The Republican billionaire wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, “This awful creature needs to be expelled from Congress! Ugh…”. Musk also called for anyone who supported the bill in question to be removed from office.
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.