Andy Kim Asks Trump Nom Point Blank If Elon Musk 'Should Be Held To The Standards Of The Hatch Act'

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During a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) spoke about Elon Musk and Hatch Act, which limits partisan political activity of civilian employees in the Executive Branch.  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00bring those both up and very briefly, Mr. Chairman. Yes, absolutely. We're

00:03committed to both of those. Obviously, the president has spoken very directly

00:06on these things. And at O. M. B. We are well underway. And if I've just be

00:11confirmed, dive deep on implementing those, those thrusts, those steers.

00:19Senator Kim. Thank you, Chairman and Mr. Chair. I just wanted also just flag

00:25that. I also agree with my colleagues that the importance of this committee

00:30taking action to be able to shine a light on what happened in terms of this

00:34administration's use of unsecure, unclassified commercial channels,

00:38including signal and Gmail. I think that this is something that's important,

00:42something that we should be investigating, something that we should

00:44have a hearing on in this committee. So I urge the chairman to work with us to

00:49be able to bring that to light. Um, Mr Cooper, I wanted to just start with you.

00:54Enjoyed our conversation. Appreciated the chance to talk with you. And one

00:57thing that we talked about is the importance of the federal workforce

01:02being clear that it serves the American people right that we need to make sure

01:05that there is no question that the workforce is serving the American

01:10people. Is that correct? Yes, Senator. While so I told you I was a civil

01:15servant, so I worked in the federal civil service. One thing that was made

01:21very clear to us is that those serving our country working in this, having

01:25access to the information of our country that we were barred from

01:29political activity, campaigning, other things like that through the Hatch Act.

01:32Do you recognize the importance of that separation? Yes, Senator. I guess I

01:36wanted to just ask you then, should Elon must be held to the same standard

01:41as the rest of those that serve our country? Um, I don't know specifically

01:46with respect to the issues you're talking about with Elon. But in

01:49general, yes, I think anybody who serves the federal government should

01:52comply with all the rules and all the regulations that are appropriate to

01:54that employee of the government. Do you think someone with the level of access

01:57that Elon Musk has had, including participating cabinet meetings, that he

02:03should be subject or at least held to the standards of the Hatch Act? Again,

02:08I don't know what the Hatch Act. I don't know where the limitations of the

02:11Hatch Act are or not, but I would say my understanding is he's employed as a

02:14special government employee, and I'm sure there's a set of rules and

02:17regulations that apply that, you know, I would expect that he would comply

02:19with. Well, I would hope, you know, the O. P. M. Was the one that sent me the

02:22guidance about the Hatch Act when I was in government. And so, you know, I

02:26certainly asked that you engage on that. But just from a standpoint here, I

02:30mean, like, look like I went home and I did some town halls throughout New

02:33Jersey, and people were just asking me, Look, he's got government contracts.

02:38You know, he's getting money. He's got business before our government now

02:43having access to so much of the information within the government and

02:47also, you know, campaigning actively around the country.

02:52That unsettles me.

02:55It, to me, seems very clearly crossing the line of what a government employee

03:01or someone who is serving this country, whatever capacity, whatever title he

03:04has, the fact that he has this much access to our government has so much

03:09influence within our government. I wanted to ask you, does it bother you?

03:14Look again, I'm not trying to be argumentative here. I don't know what

03:17the restrictions are with respect to his work via the Hatch Act. What I can

03:21tell you is a general matter is anybody who is a federal employee. I strongly

03:25believe in O. P. M. Will support this, that they should follow all the rules

03:28and all the regulations, including the Hatch Act. And if there are violations

03:31of that, then those should be dealt with appropriately. Well, look, I'd like

03:33to follow up with you on that if you're confirmed. But what I what I was trying

03:38to convey here is just a sense of just get a sense of from you how this feels

03:44to you. You know, if you share the discomfort, I mean, my constituents in

03:49New Jersey, you know, they don't know the ins and outs either of the hatchet,

03:52but they could tell that this isn't right. And that's just something that I

03:56wanted to flag for you, Mr. Elon. I want to just ask you what your thoughts were

04:02in terms of the dismantling of USAID and whether or not you thought that was

04:06lawful. You worked at the State Department. You've been engaged in

04:08foreign assistance. What do you think was how do you think the

04:13administration handled that? And do you think it was lawful? I do think it's

04:17lawful, and the court has affirmed the decisions of the secretary in that

04:21regard. USAID has been effectively shuttered and certain key roles and

04:27responsibilities removed to the Department of State with the

04:30secretary's insistence that appropriate health and life saving programs will

04:34continue under the direction of the Department of State. Do you think that the

04:38administration has the same authorities to be able to, for

04:42instance, close and abolish the Department of Education? Senator, I would

04:48expect that the courts ultimately will have a voice on this, but there are a

04:52variety of statutes, not just creating the Department of Education, but also

04:56reduction in force that clearly are going to be invoked as part of the

05:00process of reducing the footprint of the Department of Education and finding

05:05ways to return authority and responsibility of education programs to

05:09states. Chairman, I'll yield back. We're gonna go to Senator Moreno next, and I

05:17may have to leave for a few minutes.

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