Democrats trying to bar DOGE workers from jobs

This is TheTakeout. I'm glad you're here. Several Democratic lawmakers are trying to stop DOGE employees from moving into permanent positions in the federal government. They've written a strongly worded letter about this. And joining me now to discuss, CBS News political contributors Joel Payne and Terry Sullivan. Joel is a Democrat. Terry is a Republican. But you both know the utter uselessness of strongly worded letters in Washington, DC.

I don't know, Major, a strongly worded letter, that will at least get a committee to start looking into something. Obviously-- Especially if there are cosigners to this letter. Yes, exactly. Look, Democrats, this is a thing that they've been fighting is the impotence of the little bit of power that they have. I do think Democrats are getting better at using the bully pulpit. I don't think that this, per se, is the best way to do it. I do think it's a good way to highlight DOGE, the unpopularity of what DOGE did, and keeping that story in the public zeitgeist. So I think that it's a good attempt to keep that in the public zeitgeist, but, obviously, very little forcing mechanism in a strongly worded letter. We're going to skip over that because I know you believe the same thing, Terry. [LAUGHTER] Strongly worded letters go nowhere in this town, just like commission reports.

Right. Right. So let's go back to what Joel was referring to obliquely, which is DOGE, Elon Musk, boogeyman for Democrats, OK? So that sort of subsided when there was this soap opera between him and the president. But Washington always reminds us to follow the money, especially when there's all sorts of soap-opera things that might be obscuring what's actually happening. And what was happening during that very public spat, Elon Musk strokes a check of $5 million to the Trump super PAC and checks of $5 million to the super PAC supporting House Republicans and Senate Republicans. Terry, break that down for us.

Yeah, $5 million to Elon Musk is absolutely nothing.

Right. It falls out of his pockets easily, but it's still real money for those committees. It's still real money for those committees. Look, I think he is clearly right of center in his views, conservatives views. The Republican Party is the closest thing to that right now, and it's not necessarily at odds with his thinking of like, we might need a third party to hold these people accountable, especially on things like spending. And so it fits in.

Joel, does that make it easier for Democrats to reboogeyman Elon? Probably not quite as easy as it was when he was the most notable public employee of the Trump administration that was doing all the bad stuff. Listen, I think that what Elon Musk is trying to do is keep out of the crosshairs of Donald Trump. Donald Trump has threatened him on, gosh, what, at least three or four occasions in the last three months? Elon Musk has a vested interest in staying on the right side of Donald Trump. I think it's as simple as that. If you think Elon Musk is easily intimidated or is overly worried about if the president of the United States is mad at him, you're not paying attention. Not intimidated but incentivized. I do think he's incentivized to stay on Donald Trump's good side. I talk to you about something else that popped today. The president suggested very strongly something he tried to do his first term, which is redo the census and do it in a way that does not count undocumented persons in this country. The Constitution is very clear on this. Persons in this country need to be counted for purposes of a census. Terry.

Let's let the lawyers be lawyers on this, but at the end of the day, I don't think anybody-- This is a MAGA base appeal. Right. No, no, no, but what I'm saying is that common sense should tell us that if you are here illegally, maybe you shouldn't have the right-- and I'm going to guess Joel may disagree with this, but you shouldn't have the right to pick the leaders of this country. It does seem kind of common sense. I understand the point, but I do think sometimes we just have to pull back. But that implies that they vote, and they don't. They don't. They don't. They can't. But the fact-- but I understand. But it does give disproportionate weighting to those districts where they are heavy.

Joel, jump in. Yeah, this is about clarity. The clarity of the Republican MAGA project right now is redefining what an American is. This is part and parcel with that attempt. They are challenging birthright citizenship. They are trying to challenge who they think belongs in this country. They're pulling people out of TSA lines and looking at their phone history to see what they search and what they believe in. They're kicking kids off of college campuses. They are trying to redefine citizenship in this country. The American people will have several opportunities this year, next year, and beyond to vote on it. And Terry, to Joel's point, Joe Rogan has said some of those very same things recently. No, no, no, I understand that there's some points that he's made that are valid. A lot of these, low, kicking kids off of college campuses-- yes, who Incite riots, who attack other students, who take over libraries. Those things happened, and those things are definitely in the crosshairs of this administration, but also people who have written op-eds they didn't like also fell into that category.

They don't like people who disagree with them. Donald Trump is trying to tell you, you study what I tell you to study. You watch what I tell you to watch. You believe what I tell you to believe. Now, if you like that, if Republicans like that, then this is their guy. It's not a right to come here. It is a privilege to come here and visit our country and to get a visa to come to our country, and it is up to whoever's running the country to decide. There's a right to be represented and counted, though, and that's pretty clear. Well, you're changing things, though. We're talking about two different things here. Right. Very quickly, yes or no, Texas redistricting fight will benefit Republicans or Democrats, net-net?

Neither. I think it will allow Democrats to actually get into the fight and not disarm.

Joel Payne, Terry Sullivan, I appreciate it, as always. Thank you.