WASHINGTON — Rep. Robert Garcia, a Democratic darling from Lengthy Seaside, is going through scrutiny from President Trump’s Division of Justice for his current feedback about Elon Musk.
Garcia has skewered Musk on a number of events because the billionaire started his mission to intestine the federal authorities utilizing his newly created Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE. In a number of media interviews, Garcia has referred to as for rising oversight of DOGE, together with issuing a subpoena to Musk.
However a current remark about bringing “precise weapons” to a combat for American democracy caught the eye of a federal prosecutor, who despatched Garcia a letter warning that his feedback had been overly inflammatory.
Garcia had escalated his rhetoric at a DOGE subcommittee assembly final week, when he introduced in a poster-sized picture of Musk and referred to it utilizing a vulgarity.
Garcia stated he was impressed to make use of the time period by one other member of the committee, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who confirmed pictures at a Home Oversight Committee assembly in 2023 of former President Biden’s son partaking in sexual acts, alleging the pictures had been “proof of Hunter Biden making pornography.”
Garcia used the vulgarity and motioned to the poster of Musk, saying, “Now this, after all, we all know is President Elon Musk. He’s additionally the world’s richest man. He was the largest political donor within the final election. He has billions of {dollars} in conflicts of curiosity, and we all know that he’s main an influence seize, additionally abided by and inspired by Donald Trump and naturally the chairwoman, Congresswoman Greene.”
Democrats have largely been divided over how to answer the deluge of adjustments Trump and Musk have imposed upon the federal authorities within the month since Trump’s inauguration. However Garcia, a former Lengthy Seaside mayor who has loved robust help from celebration leaders resembling Biden, whereas he was in workplace, and Gov. Gavin Newsom, has taken an aggressive method.
His provocative rhetoric drew ire throughout Washington. When requested about it in a CNN interview, Garcia dug in his heels, as soon as once more utilizing a vulgarity and saying: “And I feel that he’s additionally harming the American public in an unlimited means. And what I feel is basically necessary, and what the American public needs, is for us to convey precise weapons to this bar combat. That is an precise combat for democracy.”
On Monday, Edward Martin, the U.S. legal professional for Washington, D.C. and a Trump nominee, despatched Garcia a letter, asking him to “make clear [his] feedback” from the CNN interview.
“This sounds to some like a menace to Mr. Musk … and authorities workers who work for him,” Martin wrote within the letter. “Their issues have led to this inquiry.”
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) additionally referred to as for the Home to censure Garcia over his feedback, calling them “harmful and deranged.”
“His phrases are the bottom type of political thuggery. However as a result of it’s one among their very own, the Left stays silent,” Mace stated in an announcement. “This double normal is disgusting.”
Garcia scoffed at their reactions, saying in an announcement: “No cheap particular person would view my feedback as a menace. We live in a harmful time, and elected members of Congress will need to have the proper to forcefully oppose the Trump Administration. We is not going to be silenced.”
Martin’s electronic mail to Garcia is a part of a broader effort from his workplace, referred to as “Operation Whirlwind,” to chase down threats in opposition to public officers, the Washington Put up reported.
His workplace additionally despatched a number of letters to Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for feedback he made in 2020 concerning the Supreme Court docket’s choice on abortion, when he warned conservative justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh: “You may have launched the whirlwind and you’ll pay the value. You gained’t know what hit you if you happen to go ahead with these terrible selections.”
The subsequent day, Schumer stated in a speech on the Senate flooring that he “didn’t intend to counsel something apart from political and public opinion penalties for the Supreme Court docket, and it’s a gross distortion to indicate in any other case.”
