Scott Jennings and former Fox News star Gretchen Carlson butted heads over Elon Musk’s impact at DOGE, after CNN’s token Republican praised the task force for fixing IT issues.
On Wednesday evening, host Abby Phillip put the question to the NewsNight panel: “What does the rest of the United States government have to show for Elon Musk’s time in the government?”
Her question came as the tech billionaire made a hasty retreat from Washington, D.C. after a contentious few months by Trump’s side.
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Fresh from a ham-fisted attempt at owning the libs at a Trump rally in Michigan, Scott Jennings answered that DOGE’s attempts to succeed in their grand mission of slashing so-called waste, fraud and abuse were stymied by tech issues inherited from the previous administration.
Carlson, who was on Fox & Friends from 2005 to 2013 before hosting her own show on the network for a further three years, pulled Jennings on this point.
Carlson, becoming increasingly frustrated, suggested that Jennings was trying to palm off DOGE’s failure to achieve their target of $2 trillion in savings, while reconciling that misfiring with the fact that they fixed some system issues.
Instead of speaking to her point, Jennings teased her and asked: “Why are you so angry?”
“I’m not angry, I’m frustrated,” she said, with Jennings teasing: “You look enraged!”
“I’m frustrated like most Americans because we want to know where the cuts are,” she added.
The head-to-head started when Jennings told the panel he had spoken with a Trump Cabinet member who had celebrated the task-force’s success.
“I actually spoke to a member of the Cabinet today, and I asked him point blank, how has the DOGE effort gone in your particular department? I’m just curious,” he said.
He said the unidentified Cabinet member, whom he confirmed was not Musk himself, said the press focus on the slashing of programs was “sexy.”
Jennings said that the insider added, however, that the “most interesting” feat the DOGE team achieved was overcoming supposed IT issues.
Jennings recalled: “He said, ‘the most interesting thing that these guys have been able to do for us is we inherited a massive backlog, a backlog of things that the previous administration left us, and we were unable to really deal with it because of IT issues.’”
“And he said, ‘these guys showed up over here and they made a huge impact on our IT infrastructure, which then allowed us to clear out a backlog of outstanding issues that we were just having trouble getting to.‘”
Carlson looked on in disbelief at Jennings’ comments. “So wait, this is now an IT issue?” she asked. “America wanted to see actual cuts and now we’re going to say...”
Jennings interjected, pointed at former Deputy White House Cabinet Secretary Daniel Koh and said: “Well, he just said they don’t, which is it?”
“I’m talking as Gretchen Carlson, I’m not talking as Dan, OK?” she hit back. “I’m my own individual and most Americans would agree that they want to get rid of fraud and waste. And now you’re saying that the greatest accomplishment of DOGE was that they’ve solved IT problems?”
His response was to reference another chat he had with a second unidentified Cabinet member who said that the input from Musk’s goon squad has been a “wonderful accelerant” to future work.
“So what?!” Carlson barked in response. “The politicians say whatever they say to put on a good face...”
After Jennings asked Carlson why she was so angry, host Abby Phillip stepped in, telling Jennings to avoid “calling people angry when they’re simply making a point.”
The showdown had no chance to run on as Phillip had to move the show on to the next segment.
