CNN’s chief congressional reporter Manu Raju spoke to Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) this week ahead of Elon Musk’s sit-down with House Republicans to discuss the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
“If he just takes a half step back, we’ll do something that I think can be compassionate at the same time, something as impactful when it comes to saving Americans money. It’s hard earned and hard spent,” McCormick told Raju while walking quickly through the U.S. Capitol.
“What do you mean ‘half-step back?’” pressed Raju on Wednesday evening.
“He’s admitted to things. He said, ‘Look, we know we are doing some things wrong, but we’re learning,’” McCormick replied. In recent weeks, McCormick has faced heckling at local town halls with angry citizens demanding answers about DOGE related layoffs and other cuts.
“We’ll see how Musk ultimately, if he takes that message when he meets with Republican members here,” Raju said, turning back to anchor Phil Mattingly.
“But, Phil, I can tell you that House and Senate Republicans, there’s an increasing sentiment that there should be at least some level of vote in their chambers so they can have some buy-in in the process,” Raju added.
“And perhaps it can withstand court scrutiny, especially in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision today to essentially halt the effort to gut funding that’s been has been pushed through USAID,” he concluded.
“Yeah, it’s like an article one, article two kind of thing as well. Manu Raju as always, appreciate the great reporting,” Mattingly replied.
Sen. Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told CNN earlier in the week he would like to see DOGE “hand off” its work to President Donald Trump’s cabinet secretaries who are actually running the agencies that Musk has been gutting. “DOGE is going about this and doing the big scrub. But now that you’ve got-, this is why we worked so hard to get Cabinet people in place, is hand it off to these leaders, these managers who are going to be making decisions. And they’re going to be, I think, probably better attuned,” Thune told Dana Bash.
Watch the clip above via CNN.