WASHINGTON — Elon Musk seems to have Democrats right where he wants them: Warring with each other.
The internet piled on Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) earlier Wednesday after Democrats on the House Oversight Committee fell a couple votes shy of subpoenaing Musk, the unelected and unconfirmed head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
That left Khanna — who missed the committee vote because he was meeting with Mexico’s ambassador over the specter of President Donald Trump’s tariffs — playing defense against Democrats the rest of his digital day and night, including the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA).
“Did you see the correction on community notes?” Khanna asked Raw Story a few hours after the unforced kerfuffle.
“No, no. What happened?” Raw Story asked. “Oh, on Twitter.”
“There's much ado about nothing. They called the vote because Connolly was like, ‘Oh, the Republicans are absent, let's just quickly call this vote’ and they didn't tell us,” Khanna told us. “We shouldn't have had a vote that important without giving members notice that you're going to have that vote. People miss procedural votes on committees all the time. But if there's an important vote, usually you'd say, ‘Hey, we're going to vote on Elon Musk’s subpoena tomorrow.’”
Connolly — who bested Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) for Democrat’s top slot on the all-important Oversight Committee a few weeks back — begs to differ.
“Is there a better way to notice votes so that people like Congressman Khanna show up on time?” Raw Story asked.
“Of course not. The whole point of being at a hearing is votes can happen anytime,” Connolly told Raw Story. “No one gets special notification of votes, and I met with the Democrats last night to go over the hearing and told them explicitly I was going to make this motion.”
Connolly still isn’t over falling just shy of his procedural ploy.
“It's not standard. I went out of my way to make sure that people had lots of notice of what I was going to do,” Connolly continued. “I specifically said, ‘Please be here on time, because this will lead to a vote.’ I said that if I move to subpoena Elon Musk, they're going to move to table. When they table, we have a vote immediately. It's not debatable, so you gotta be there.”
The internal Democratic Party finger-pointing has Republicans smiling.
“I mean, we won. We tabled that motion,” Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) told Raw Story. “Someone missed a vote, but we settled it, moved on.”
Republicans may have moved on, but Democrats still want to grill Musk over the upheaval he’s unleashed from USAID to the CIA.
Higgins, Musk and other Republicans argue they aren’t intimidated, just busy.
“I think it'd be, probably, a bad day for the Democrats when we have Elon come testify,” Higgins said.
“How come?” Raw Story pressed.
“Because he's a super intelligent guy,” Higgins said. “He's doing his best to help our country save itself from itself.”
Democrats like Connolly aren’t buying that.
“Then why table my motion? They could have embraced my motion,” Connolly said. “So you know, if you’re gonna be a phony, at least be sincere about it.”
Connolly’s not alone. Democratic frustration is palpable, even if many aren’t naming certain names.
“I can't say who knew what, when,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), another Oversight Committee member, told Raw Story. “I can say that we absolutely had a separate meeting ourselves, as Democrats, yesterday to prepare for today.”
Frustrations aside, Crockett says this is no time for Democrat-on-Democrat violence.
Crockett says Democrats must stay focused on Trump and Musk — whatever the tech CEO’s role truly is.
“If Elon is all about exposing whatever mismanagement, whatever waste, fraud and abuse exists within the federal government, why wouldn't he come before the American people and face consequences if you aren't telling the truth to us and tell us about the work that you've been doing?” Crockett said.
The congresswoman says the easiest way to allay fears is for Musk to come in and testify.
“It would actually calm everybody down, as Republicans have been complaining that they've been receiving phone calls as well,” Crockett said.
Republicans, Crocket argues, “literally are abdicating their constitutional responsibilities.”
“I don't know why they swore an oath in the first place, if it wasn't an oath that was to Donald Trump and whoever it is that he wants at his side, which, right now it seems, like, I don't know if it's ‘First Lady Elon’ or if it's ‘First Lady Trump,’” Crockett told Raw Story. “But either way, we are in a situation where we got a president and a first lady and they are running amok.”
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Pablo Manríquez contributed to this report.