Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) on Thursday knocked President Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk over what he called a new McCarthy Era for government employees.
“It really is sort of like the McCarthy Era 2.0 [for a lot of] federal employees and for all of us as well, so, but they’re standing up and they’re being heard, and I think that’s a hopeful sign that … Elon Musk and Donald Trump aren’t gonna, with impunity, simply have their way with the federal workforce,” Connolly told MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera in a clip highlighted by Mediaite.
In recent weeks, Musk, the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has dispatched staff to multiple agencies and has been able to access databases at the Office of Personnel Management and the Treasury Department.
Last month, the Trump administration also offered 2 million federal employees the chance to resign prior to return to office requirements in an attempt to shrink the workforce.
There has been heavy criticism toward Musk from Democrats in recent weeks, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) saying recently that the tech billionaire is “one of the most unintelligent billionaires” she has ever met.
“This dude is probably one of the most unintelligent billionaires I have ever met or seen or witnessed,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
In his MSNBC appearance Thursday, Connolly said “federal employees, I think, have gone from shock and dismay to now, anger and determination.”
On Wednesday, Democratic lawmakers accused DOGE of wrongly putting itself into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“Elon Musk and his DOGE hackers are ransacking their way through the federal government, unlawfully gaining unfettered access to Americans’ private information and gutting programs people depend on,” Reps. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said previously.
“Now they have reached NOAA where they’re wreaking havoc on the scientific and regulatory systems that protect American families’ safety and jobs.”
The Hill has reached out to the White House and DOGE for comment.
