Angry Dem Lawmakers Blocked By Security From Entering USAID Headquarters
And now apparently Dems have
essentially been locked out of the USAID headquarters in Washington, amid efforts to get in and investigate what's going on, and seeking to meet with top administrators now running the show (or rather, overseeing the dismantling of the agency) in the HQ.
The Hill details
Monday afternoon:
A group of Senate and House Democrats were blocked from entering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on Monday.
The Democratic lawmakers, who are opposed to President Trump’s efforts to shut down the agency, left without incident after a brief exchange with security officials. The group, led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), were told the front office of the administrator of USAID was not available to meet.
A select group of USAID employees with the front office administrator were in the office Monday, an official told lawmakers outside the doors, but were not free to meet with the lawmakers.
One Democratic lawmaker told the publication about being blocked at the entrance that the whole saga is "underwhelming". However, clearly Trump and Musk are setting off huge alarm bells, and this is likely but the first salvo on Congress's attempt to intervene.
Blocked!... no access:
Musk says the agency has effectively been shut down. The email, which is now widely circulating on social media postings, was sent from Gavin Kliger via an official usaid.gov. address. He is one among the twenty-somethings assisting Musk in implementing Trump's order to slash foreign aid and stop waste.
"Logos and photos of its aid work have been stripped from building walls," CNN writes of the HQ's sudden closure. This after all web and and social media accounts went dark over the weekend, now with a simplified version of its webpage on the State Department’s website.
"None of this could be done without the full support of the president," Musk said in a Sunday X Spaces event. “I went over it with him in detail, and he agreed with that we should shut it down. I want to be clear.
I actually checked with him a few times. I said, "Are you sure?’ ‘Yes.’ So we’re shutting it down."
Thousands of staff have told media outlets that they have lost access to their email accounts, which have been deactivated.
A USAID worker has subsequently said: "We have been officially informed that the US Department of State now has access to all of our internal documents and our entire suite of files, documents, everything —
all of our systems." Top officials were fired over the weekend.
Musk says
"We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper"...
One big question that remains is how much noise Congressional leaders will make.
Will Congress attempt intervention, also as there are reports that Musk and DOGE have access to the US Treasury's payment system?
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
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