Maggie Hassan Goes Off On President Trump And Her Republican Colleagues In Fiery Remarks

yesterday

At a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Friday, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) spoke about President Trump's nominees.

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00:01Next is Senator Hassan.

00:03Well, thank you, Mr. Chair and Ranking Member, for this markup and making it possible that

00:09members can voice their significant concerns about how Elon Musk's action at the Treasury

00:14Department are harming families across the country.

00:17I will echo the comments of the Senator from Washington.

00:22We have been waiting for the Trump administration to actually do the work to lower costs and

00:28make life more affordable for Americans, and of course they are not.

00:32They are ruining the economy, and they are creating chaos and corruption everywhere they

00:39go.

00:40For my entire time in public service, I've worked on many bipartisan efforts to cut waste,

00:46fraud, and abuse across state government and federal government, and I strongly support

00:51efforts to make government more efficient.

00:53But Elon Musk's actions serve only to help him gain power, increase his personal wealth,

00:59and sow chaos at the expense of American families.

01:03In his first week in office, President Trump fired 18 independent watchdogs whose whole

01:09jobs are to stop waste, fraud, and abuse, including the firing of the independent watchdog

01:15at the Treasury Department.

01:17With the independent Treasury watchdog gone, Elon Musk moved immediately to install his

01:23own loyalists at the Treasury Department and to give them unlimited access to Americans'

01:29personal financial information, as well as the power to block any payment by the federal

01:34government to a community nonprofit or a small business that Elon Musk dislikes.

01:40Fortunately, some of Mr. Musk's illegal attempts have been blocked by federal courts for now,

01:46but as we have just heard from our ranking member, the violations of law at Treasury

01:50continue and the harm to the American people grows.

01:54I understand the value that a respected outsider with significant private sector experience

01:59could bring to government operations, but that's not who Elon Musk installed at Treasury

02:05to sift through Americans' private personal information.

02:10The DOJ staffer who was given official access to sensitive personal information in IRS systems

02:16is a Musk loyalist who previously worked for SpaceX and Twitter.

02:22Following the President's attempt in February to unilaterally take away all federal grants

02:26through an indefinite funding freeze, I believe that all members of this committee should

02:32be significantly concerned about what Elon Musk will take away from our communities as

02:38he regains access to the Treasury payment system.

02:42Now, one last comment about the nominee.

02:45Mr. Faulkner, to his credit, and I can't believe that I have to say this in a committee

02:50in the United States Senate, to his credit stated that he would follow the law rather

02:54than an illegal directive from the President.

02:59He stated he would follow the law rather than an illegal directive from the President and

03:03that is the exception among nominees right now to this administration.

03:08That I have to ask that question now of every nominee is an outrage and every member of

03:13this committee should be outraged by it.

03:17But despite the fact that Mr. Faulkner at least showed the character to say he'd follow

03:22the law, again, it should be a prerequisite for any nominee, given Elon Musk's power grab

03:30at the expense of American families, I have to oppose Mr. Faulkner's nomination today.

Maggie Hassan Goes Off On President Trump And Her Republican Colleagues In Fiery Remarks

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