A Georgia Republican is admonishing tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has become a political force, for rejecting the ongoing government funding proposal Thursday night.
In conversation with CNN’s Katilan Collins, Rep. Rich McCormick said:
This is a leadership challenge Mike Johnson has to define itself. Will you get the right input from the right people to get this bill passed? Because to be sincere, this doesn’t happen in a vacuum. And it doesn’t matter because honestly, last time I checked, Elon Musk doesn’t have a vote in Congress.
Now he has influence and will put pressure on us to do what he believes is right for him. But I have 760,000 people who voted for me to do the right thing for them. And that’s what’s significant to me.
Musk, the richest person in the world who met you Net worth of $400 billion Earlier this month, he helped support President-elect Donald Trump’s efforts to retake the White House. He intervened lively in the political struggle Quarter million dollars of influence, including his America PAC donations, in-kind contributions, and checks to Trump’s joint fundraising committees.
Musk will lead the recent Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and promises to reduce federal spending and waste by trillions. Musk was expected to take on this role once Trump took office in January, but he seized the initiative early and has already begun to exert influence on policy matters.
His newfound influence in Washington is being welcomed by some, with Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul suggesting that Musk should become Speaker of the House. Additionally, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has weighed in on the idea, suggesting she would be open to Musk in the leadership role.
On Thursday, Rep. Greene wrote on Xthe social media platform owned by Musk in particular says:
I would be open to supporting @elonmusk for Speaker of the House. DOGE can only be truly realized by governing Congress to achieve true government efficiency.
The establishment must be destroyed just as it was yesterday. That could be the way.
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As expected, Democratic lawmakers are less enthusiastic. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) criticized Musk’s influence, calling him “President Musk” in her comments Thursday, while Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) complained on social media, writing:
It’s a melancholy state of affairs when the richest man in the world can drive us straight into government shutdown. He’ll be fine, but many soldiers who work without a paycheck on Christmas won’t be.
As RedState’s Bonchie recently pointed out, the left’s problem with Musk isn’t that he’s a billionaire, but that he’s an influential billionaire that they don’t control.
Bonchie wrote:
Democrats loathe Elon Musk because he is one of the few billionaires, the richest of them all, who doesn’t march in step with the left and follow them off the proverbial cliff. His worst sin, aside from buying their sandbox Twitter and introducing free speech into it, is that he became close to President-elect Donald Trump.
But as Rep. Rich McCormick has shown that those who think differently are not just on one side of the aisle. Unfortunately for those standing in the way, the lively Musk-Trump duo did promised to primaryize them.
