Vice President Vance and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) sparred on social media platform X over the proposed rehiring of a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer who resigned after his racist social media posts came to light.
Marko Elez, a 25-year-old DOGE aide, had “read-only” access to sensitive Treasury Department payment systems. He resigned on Thursday, a White House official told The Hill after The Wall Street Journal first uncovered his past posts espousing racist beliefs.
“Normalize Indian hate,” one account associated with the aide said, according to the Journal.
“You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” the account said on X, the paper reported.
Vance said on Friday that the 25-year-old should be rehired.
“Here’s my view: I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life,” Vance said Friday on X, replying to tech billionaire Elon Musk’s post where he polled X’s users on if Elez should be brought back after making “inappropriate statements.”
“We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back,” Vance wrote. “If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.”
Khanna, who is of Indian descent, replied to Vance’s post, asking the vice president if he will ask Elez to apologize for the racist posts.
“Are you going to tell him to apologize for saying ‘Normalize Indian hate’ before this rehire? Just asking for the sake of both of our kids,” Khanna said Friday on X.
Vance, whose wife Usha Vance is the first Indian American to serve as second lady, responded “For the sake of both of our kids? Grow up.”
“Racist trolls on the internet, while offensive, don’t threaten my kids. You know what does? A culture that denies grace to people who make mistakes,” Vance wrote. “A culture that encourages congressmen to act like whiny children.”
The vice president, who has three young children, said he loathed Khanna’s post, which he called “emotional blackmail.”
“I don’t worry about my kids making mistakes, or developing views they later regret. I don’t even worry that much about trolls on the internet. You know what I do worry about, Ro? That they’ll grow up to be a US Congressmen who engages in emotional blackmail over a kid’s social media posts,” Vance added in the reply. “You disgust me.”
Khanna, who represents California’s 17th Congressional District, responded to Vance, telling him that he does not need “hurl insults” to freely share viewpoints and ideas.
“Saying I am ‘whiny’ & ‘you disgust me’ maybe your way of showing strength,” Khanna wrote. “Personally, I don’t think you have to hurl insults or be mean-spirited to have a free exchange ideas. Our country, at its, best (Lincoln/Douglass) was not like that and you at your best JD were not either.”
Elez is one of the DOGE staffers who got approval from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to have access to the systems headed by the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service. President Trump indicated Friday that he supported Elez being rehired, and Musk said he would bring him back to work for DOGE.
