‘How Can You Not Ask Questions?!’ CNN’s Pamela Brown Battles House Republican Over DOGE-Musk Oversight in Fiery Skirmish

CNN host Pamela Brown battled DOGE subcommittee member Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) in a fiery on-air showdown over the extent of Elon Musk’s influence on federal cuts and the extent of government oversight of him on Monday.

The heated exchange unfolded as Brown challenged Burchett on a new court filing, published Monday, that revealed that Musk is not the leader of DOGE, the organization tasked with carrying out President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting project, but a “senior adviser to the president.” The technicality raised new questions about Musk’s role and accountability as DOGE slashes government jobs and accesses sensitive records.

“You are on the DOGE subcommittee, and the White House says in a court filing, Elon Musk is not overseeing DOGE. Did you know that?” Brown asked.

Burchett pushed back forcefully, arguing that the real issue was not Musk.

“President Trump is overseeing DOGE, ma’am,” he shot back, lambasting Democrats as “disturbed” by Musk – formerly “their guy” – now helping Trump.

The host countered that many Americans and congressmembers “on both sides of the aisle” were supportive of cuts but also had “concern by how much access Musk and DOGE staffers have to their private sensitive data.” Pointing out that Burchett also sat on the House Oversight Committee she pressed on to ask about Musk’s Chinese investments and access to data.

“What information do you actually have on what doge is doing with that data? What are your questions? What do you want to know?” she asked.

Burchett dismissed the concerns, noting there was never a security breach at PayPal under Musk’s ownership. He also attacked the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – next in DOGE’s sights – as inefficient.

“Look, I’m not saying there’s no problems with government agencies or…” the host said.

As the pair talked over one another, Burchett replied: “You ask me a question – you ask me a question –”

“But you’re not answering it,” Brown snapped.

Burchett criticized concern about access to government records, reasoning that “the IRS has hundreds of different groups that have access to this stuff, and yet no one has complained about that.”

The host, in return, insisted that “checks and balances” exist for a reason and that “it’s highly unusual for politicals to have access to that system.”

She challenged Burchett again: “Do you not have questions about what they’re doing with the data, why they want access to private tax information from Americans? Do you not have those questions? As a member of the Oversight Committee?”

Burchett responded. “The only reason you have questions is if you’re doing something crooked and you’re going to see a lot of congressmen with red faces when they follow this paper trail back to members of congress, ma’am. And that’s the bottom line.”

He continued: “Hundreds of different people have access to this… And yet no one raised one peep about it. Now Elon Musk gets a hold of it and he and he’s going to do something. He’s going to make some changes that need to be made. And you all are pitching a fit. It’s the same old line, man. You attack the message carrier.”

Brown pushed back: “Not pitching a fit at all, a lot of people think it’s a good thing to weed out waste, but there are fair questions to be asking, congressman, about these unelected people going in and having access to private information from America. How can you not be asking those questions? Those are very fair questions.”

“Hold on for a second!” Burchett hit back. “How many people at the IRS are elected? How many of those are elected? Ma’am, this is okay. You’re proving my point. You’ve got all these people, and they’re. This is a very porous agency. We know that.”

As the host asked about “checks and balances in place” for DOGE’s “young staffers” tasked with rooting out jobs and programs deemed unnecessary in agencies, Burchett insisted he was asking questions he was tasked with as a committee member.

“I’m not hearing them from you,” Brown said.

Burchett pointed to two rifles behind him: “Look at these. Those Japanese rifles that, guess what? My dad was 20-21 years old when he killed the people that carried that. You all don’t question the fact when, you know, these 20-22 year old people are the ones that fight our dadgum wars, but yet –”

“There’s a difference between members of the greatest generation going to foreign service, risking their life to serve our country, and young staffers going in with their computers and trying to get access to personal data. There is a big difference,” the host replied.

“But I want to follow up here. I just want to follow up because I think this is an important question,” she added.

“You won’t answer your own questions, ma’am,” Burchett said.

As Brown expanded her case, she listed out various cuts that had already been made, calling out the changes as “clumsy” rather than “methodical.”

“Again, you’re upset about you’re attacking the message here, not the results,” the congressman said. “You talk about nuclear secrets. You had a person who was in charge of nuclear secrets, a man who dressed up as a woman who would go into the airport and steal women’s luggage was overseeing those nuclear secrets under the Biden administration. And I never heard you say a peep about that again. Ma’am.”

“I don’t know anything about that. I’ll be transparent,” the host returned.

“Elon Musk… Yeah? Well, you need to look it up. He’s he’s a he’s it’s all over the internet. It’s all over,” Burchett said.

Brown attempted to clarify: “The question is, you know, some of these mistakes are really high stakes firing, accidentally firing people overseeing nuclear weapons. Do you see that point?”

The congressman replied: “Humans will make mistakes, ma’am. But currently these are bloated programs. You have no show employees that are angry that they’re having to go back to work…”

Brown repeated: “No one is disagreeing that there’s bloat and waste –”

“Well, then why are y’all not exposing it?” Burchett hit back.

Watch above via CNN.