Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) is urging Republicans to call on Elon Musk to testify before the Senate labor committee in order to probe who in the Trump administration is truly in charge, as the Senate continues advancing cabinet picks in spite of Musk seemingly being behind most major decisions.
In remarks on the nomination of President Donald Trump’s labor secretary pick, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Sanders said that he opposes Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination — but that it hardly matters who is in the cabinet with Musk at large.
The labor secretary should be someone who protects workers’ rights and the interests of working people, with tens of millions workers subject to “starvation wages” and an increasingly huge gulf between the rich and the working class, Sanders said. And yet, the person making decisions related to labor and other issues facing working people is instead the richest person on earth, he said.
“The most important point of this hearing is, let me be very clear: Today, we are not voting on who the next Secretary of Labor is. The next Secretary of Labor, the next Secretary of Education, the next Secretary of Housing, the next Secretary of the Treasury is Elon Musk. And let us understand that reality and not play along with this charade,” Sanders said.
“Does anyone here really think that any Secretary of Labor, any Secretary of Education, is going to make decisions by himself or herself?” he asked.
Indeed, as the senator pointed out, Musk held an outsized presence at Trump’s first cabinet meeting of his second term on Wednesday. Musk is not a cabinet-level official — in fact, his title as a special government employee means that he is only supposed to work for 130 days in a calendar year and underwent less vetting than normal federal employees.
And yet, Musk spoke more than any of the official cabinet members, and when he was not speaking, Trump often referred to him as someone advising him on major decisions like laying off a million federal workers.
At one point, Trump said: “Is anybody unhappy with Elon?” Trump asked. “If you are, we’ll throw them out of here.”
“Let’s be honest. The American people understand it, and it’s time that we understood it as well. If you want to discuss policies in the Department of Labor, let’s bring in the real secretary,” Sanders said. “Mr. Chairman, I respectfully request that this committee bring Elon Musk before this committee so that we can really hear what’s going on with the government.”
The committee ultimately voted 14 to 9 to advance Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination, with three Democrats joining Republicans in voting in her favor.
Sanders voted “no.” Labor advocates have noted that, while Chavez-DeRemer was one of the few Republicans to support the pro-union Protecting the Right to Organize Act when she was a House member, she also falls in line with Republicans’ anti-worker views — supporting anti-union “right to work” laws.
Musk, meanwhile, wants to shut down federal labor regulation entirely. After years of his companies being investigated by labor regulators for numerous alleged labor violations, Musk’s SpaceX filed a lawsuit last year attempting to shutter the National Labor Relations Board, the country’s top labor regulator.
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