Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) sharply criticized Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader Elon Musk for what he argued is “subverting the Constitution.”
Wyden joined MSNBC’s Jen Psaki on Monday to discuss the ongoing changes as Musk and DOGE look to reshape the administration’s budget. Democrats, and other critics, have begun sounding the alarm about their steps to overhaul the federal government.
“The reality is, Musk is about subverting the Constitution,” Wyden said. “He’s already got access to Social Security, financial data, health data, you name it.”
“I think people need to know that these are the elements of a coup,” he added.
The Oregon Democrat and his colleagues are very concerned about DOGE’s recent actions and argue that their party is ready to shut down the federal government over Trump’s agenda, as the mid-March spending deadline nears.
Officials at DOGE have essentially shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and have gained access to the Treasury Department’s federal payment system, which houses $6 trillion in federal funds and Americans’ confidential tax records.
They have also begun examining the Consumer Federal Protection Bureau, which was created in 2008 and aimed to protect people from getting swindled by various companies.
While major concern was sparked after officials gained access to the federal payment system, a federal judge later placed on a block on DOGE’s ability to review the sensitive information. The move came after the Treasury Department was ordered to only give a limited number of DOGE staff a “read-only” access to the information.
Wyden, who called the “read-only” rule a “blatant lie,” suggested Musk’s team likely had more access to the information than reported.
“Later reporting showed that, in effect, the henchmen, the Musk henchmen, were going in there, cut off payments they don’t like,” Wyden said.
Psaki, who previously served as former President’s Biden’s press secretary, pressed the senator further on why he thought DOGE had more on an influence on the payment systems.
“We got extensive reporting that showed this wasn’t just a garden variety examination of files or film or something like that,” he said. “This was an attempt to go after payments.”
Wyden argued that DOGE is not conducting routine audits but is targeting people and ideas that don’t align with their beliefs, even if they are American, nonpartisan institutions.
Harrison Fields, a White House principal deputy press secretary, slammed Democrats for their election loss, saying it’s showing that they are embarrassed.
“Instead of working to become a party that focuses on the will of the people, they are hell-bent on keeping their heads in the sand and gaslighting on the widely supported mission of DOGE,” Fields said in a statement to The Hill.
“Slashing waste, fraud, and abuse, and becoming better stewards of the American taxpayer’s hard-earned dollars might be a crime to Democrats, but it’s not a crime in a court of law,” he added.
