GOP Congressman Defends Elon Musk in Debate with CNN’s Pamela Brown: ‘Messy and Sloppy’ … But Not ‘Illegal’

CNN anchor Pamela Brown challenged Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), who sits on the House Oversight Committee, about Elon Musk’s recent activities through his DOGE committee, like gaining access to various federal agency data and shutting down USAID funding. The congressman called Musk “a bull in a China shop” but defended his actions as necessary to get government spending under control.

Brown began the discussion on Wednesday’s episode of CNN Newsroom by asking Turner about criticisms of Musk, like concerns that suddenly cutting off USAID funding would cost lives and that the withdrawal of American aid efforts would strengthen adversaries like Russia and China.

“Well, certainly this is disruptive,” said Turner about what Musk was doing, but we have to “get control” over spending, because the U.S. “cannot continue to operate in the manner we are” with “trillions and trillions of dollars in debt.”

Turner added that it was necessary “to get the government to be more responsive to the senior leadership, the senior policy leadership,” arguing that during President Donald Trump’s first term “it took years before even portions of the government were responsive to senior leadership.”

These changes needed to “be disruptive as we review those processes to make certain that they’re being responsive,” Turner said.

Brown pressed Turner on the issue of how “disruptive” the changes were, if this was “the right way to go about this,” and if he was “comfortable with Musk’s role as an unelected person” as a “tech billionaire” who had financial conflicts with the federal government now “wielding a ton of influence on this administration,” including having “access to the Treasury Department’s financial payment system, which sends out money on behalf of the entire federal government” and “leading the charge” in “dismantling parts of the federal government.”

“We certainly are always concerned when there’s a bull in a china shop, and that certainly is something that we’re seeing here,” said Turner, but insisted there were “limits” and Congress and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were involved in the process. “Some of the news reports are exaggerations of what’s occurring,” he argued, based merely on “anonymous sources” and “anecdotal stories of what is occurring or what Elon Musk is doing or has access to, as opposed to actually what is happening –”

Brown interjected to point out the Treasury Department had confirmed that Musk had “view only” access to the payment system, so it was “not just anonymous sources.”

Turner retorted by criticizing the media for reporting that Musk had “access” to this system, which “makes it sound like he has levers and dials and can pull and pull and push” and he’s “sitting there” like “the Wizard of Oz with controls and dials.” Instead, Turner argued, Musk was going to be making recommendations where reforms needed to be made or fraud addressed, so “having access, view only, is to be be able to understand what is occurring.”

Brown pointed out that she had “made clear it was view only,” and this kicked off an extended section where she grilled the congressman about the concerns regarding Musk’s role as “this unelected person having access to all of this information about Americans’ payments that they’re receiving,” plus his financial conflicts of interest, and how “accountability” was being maintained regarding the billionaire.

Turner repeatedly responded by arguing that we are “trillions and trillions of dollars in debt” and there was “fraud throughout the system,” so “we’re trying to get a handle on this” and the view only access let Musk’s team review the “portions of the system” that needed to be reviewed “so that we can understand what reforms need to be put in place” — sparking multiple follow up questions from Brown asking him to answer her question about accountability.

Turner said he believed there were “checks and balances in the system” but that wasn’t being “reported accurately” and it was giving people “the impression that that people are running amok in government.” He voiced his confidence that Musk would eventually testify before the Oversight Committee and insisted again that it was not like “the bank vault door is open and Elon Musk is sitting in there as the Wizard of Oz.”

Brown circled back again: “There’s still this big question of accountability, right? I think that Americans are looking at this and wondering what is going on here. We didn’t put this guy in charge, right? And he has a massive amount of power as the richest man in the world with all of this conflict of interest in front of the federal government, and we don’t really have insight and a clear view of what is going on.”

As the segment drew to a close, she mentioned lawsuits that had been filed arguing that laws were being broken and funds appropriated by Congress just “wiped away, against the law,” looking like Congress was “ceding power here to the executive branch.”

“Well, you said a lot there, none of which yet has been has been determined,” replied Turner. “This is –”

“What hasn’t been determined about what I said?” Brown interjected.

“Well, you’ve said ‘against the law,’ you actually –” said Turner.

“No, I said, I said lawyers,” she replied, “I said lawyers — there are laws that Congress made, and at least four lawsuits have been filed, alleging that laws have been broken.”

Turner went back to his earlier points about how federal spending was “massive and enormous and is out of control” so it was necessary to “move quickly.”

Musk’s process would be “messy and sloppy and not pretty,” Turner argued, “but it’s not going to be illegal.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.