JD Vance Angrily Defends Call For DOGE to Rehire ‘Racist’ Troll Who Called to ‘Normalize Indian Hate’
AP Photo/Matt York
Vice President JD Vance hit back at critics on Friday who called him out for suggesting that a DOGE staffer who made racist posts on X should be rehired.
Musk, who hired 25-year-old Marko Elez, put up a poll on X after Elez resigned on Thursday, “Bring back @DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now-deleted pseudonym?”
Elez resigned from Musk’s DOGE after the Wall Street Journal reported on his past social media activity, which included posting statements like, “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.”
Among the litany of bigoted things Elez posted was a screed against Indian Americans. “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity. Normalize Indian hate,” Elez’s account read in September. The WSJ added:
The user appeared to have a special dislike for Indian software engineers. “99% of Indian H1Bs will be replaced by slightly smarter LLMs, they’re going back don’t worry guys,” the user posted in December, referring to large language models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Vance, who is married to an Indian American, replied to Musk’s poll and wrote, “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. We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back. If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.”
President Donald Trump agreed during a press event on Friday that Vance was right to call for Elez’s return.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) replied to Vance, “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.”
Vance replied, “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. A culture that encourages congressmen to act like whiny children.”
Vance added, “I cannot overstate how much I loathe this emotional blackmail pretending to be concern. My kids, god willing, will be risk takers. They won’t think constantly about whether a flippant comment or a wrong viewpoint will follow them around for the rest of their lives.” He continued:
They will tell stupid jokes. They will develop views that they later think are wrong or even gross. I made mistakes as a kid, and thank God I grew up in a culture that encouraged me to grow and learn and feel remorse when I screwed up and offer grace when others did.
Khanna replied, “No one is denying grace to people who make mistakes. I respect Usha (praised her publicly) & defended your family from some of the vicious attacks. But if you are going to rehire someone to represent you & the USA, why not insist he apologize for saying ‘Normalize Indian hate?’”
“Saying I am “whiny” & “you disgust me” maybe your way of showing strength. 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,” Khanna later added.
Elez was one of two DOGE employees granted access to the Treasury Department’s federal payments system this week.
