Elon Musk's efforts to slash federal government spending have triggered protests against Tesla and acts of vandalism and violence at his dealerships. Vehicles have been set ablaze on his car lots, while customers' vehicles have been keyed and vandalized with spray paint, in some cases with swastikas. A planned nationwide protest named "Tesla Takedown" was set for Saturday.

U.S. Representative Greg Casar, D-Austin, whose district includes the Tesla Gigafactory in east Austin, criticized the crimes committed. 

"Violence and vandalism are wrong, and every Democrat in elected office thinks that folks that commit violence should be held accountable," said Casar.

In an interview with CBS News Texas, Casar also said people do have a right to speak out against Musk peacefully. "There are many people that have real concerns that they want to express peacefully about Elon Musk firing nuclear safety workers, Elon Musk trying to fire people in the air traffic control system when we know we need planes to be able to fly safely. So, I support people speaking out in a peaceful fashion. If we want to talk about government efficiency, we should be looking at the big contracts that Elon Musk gets, the big contracts that big pharma and big tech get."

U.S. Representative Randy Weber, R-Friendswood, rejected the vandalism and violence against the Tesla brand and customers' vehicles. In an interview with CBS News Texas he said, "This is the kind of violence and vandalism I would call thuggery that's happening in the United States of America. Because they don't like the fact that somebody has actually stepped up to the plate and said remember those three things we're going to work on: eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. They don't like that. Remember a lot of these people are the same ones that didn't like the gas vehicles, didn't like fossil fuel vehicles. So, they pushed for EV's. There was federal money that came out for subsidies for EV's. They go their way, and all of a sudden because the owner of that EV factory, manufacturing company is helping to cut waste, fraud, and abuse. They're going to go and attack his place of business, his places of business and also burn people's cars that have the right to be in those cars, they have lost their collective mind. It really is sad." 

The Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE website says it has made $130 billion in savings, or about $807 per federal taxpayer. However, various judges have blocked various planned cutbacks by DOGE.

Watch Eye On Politics 7:30 a.m. Sunday on air and streaming on CBS News Texas.

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