The House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing on Tuesday was slated to discuss billions of dollars in government waste identified by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), but first devolved into chaos when one Democrat repeatedly referred to the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as ‘President Musk’ and to President Donald Trump as the ‘grifter in chief.’
Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., kicked off the hearing by accusing Democrats of declining to participate with Republicans in their oversight plan.
‘Instead of working together that the Democrats informed us that they have amendments to the plan but are refusing to discuss them with me in advance. They kept any changes. They wanted a secret,’ Comer said in opening remarks. ‘Democrats have rejected every opportunity offered to contribute to the oversight plan. So how am I supposed to incorporate secret opinions that they refuse to share? You may be asking yourself, ‘Why would the Democrats do that?’ Democrats say they want to participate in oversight, but if that were true, why would they decline multiple opportunities to actually engage in the plan for that oversight? Because they don’t want to participate. They want to stonewall and engage in theater.’
Comer further charged that Democrats ‘would rather hear themselves talk about President Trump and the evil Elon Musk than work together on actual oversight that the American people are demanding,’ adding that polling this week suggests ‘the American people overwhelmingly support the work President Trump and DOGE are doing.’
Ranking Member Gerry Connolly, D-Va., shot back, criticizing the Republicans’ oversight plan over what he deemed leniency toward the Trump administration.
‘The sins of omission in this plan are damning,’ Connolly contended. ‘My amendment would restore the committee’s proper role as a watchdog, not a lapdog.’
Tensions across the aisle escalated when Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., addressed the committee.
‘People like the grifter in chief Trump and President Musk are openly using their public offices to enrich themselves to the tune of billions of dollars,’ Frost charged. ‘So if we want to look at waste, fraud and abuse, which I’m down to do, why is there a complete silence on the other side of the aisle about looking at the complete grifter that is the President of the United States and the richest man on the earth…. Why don’t we investigate the real corruption?’
An objection was raised by Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., and Comer called a point of order. Frost contended he could refer to Elon Musk as the president and Connolly asserted that the First Amendment had not been suspended.
Comer asked Frost if he would like to ‘revise’ his remarks regarding the president, who is protected by House and committee rules of decorum, but Frost did not back down.
‘I’ll say President Musk and grifter in chief Trump,’ Frost began, before another point of order was called.
Committee members began to shout over one another, until Comer again gave Frost a chance to revise his statements.
‘President Musk and the President of the United States, Donald Trump, who is engaged in grifting of the American people, often use their public offices to enrich themselves,’ Frost said, until Comer stopped him.
Addressing the motion against Frost for ‘disparaging the president,’ Comer told Frost, ‘If you’re willing to request unanimous consent to withdraw the disparaging comments about President Trump, I guess you can disparage Elon Musk if you want.’
‘I will withdraw grifter in chief,’ Frost said. ‘I will say the president’s grifting because you spent the last two years saying President Biden was corrupt.’
‘I can say that Trump is grifting. What I will withdraw is calling him grifter in chief,’ Frost added.
Comer said Frost was barred from further participating in the hearing, but Connolly challenged the chair’s ruling and called for a vote.
It was voted that Frost’s words should be taken down, and he was not permitted to speak for the rest of the hearing, but he interjected, ‘It’s despicable that this committee is going to silence me.’
‘Mr. Ranking Member, I’m going to have the sergeant remove him if he doesn’t refrain,’ Comer said.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., and other Democrats further shouted in defense of ‘free speech,’ before Comer again attempted to get the hearing back on course.
‘We have a hearing on waste, fraud and abuse that hasn’t even begun,’ Comer said. ‘The organizational thing just normally lasts five or 10 minutes. We’ve been in here 35 minutes arguing over the same things…. We’ve got to get to business. If we want to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse, we’ve got witnesses waiting. We have tried to do this. The debate has gone on well beyond what was expected.’
After about 40 minutes of back and forth, the hearing went into recess. When it returned, the committee heard from GAO Comptroller General Gene Dodaro regarding the watchdog’s recommendations for DOGE.
Frost continued the feud online, writing in an X post, ‘James Comer can hide behind the Sergeant in Arms and try to have me removed, arrested, and silenced… But that’s not going to stop me from calling out Donald Trump’s grift and his bullsh–‘
‘These snowflakes are really pissed off about me saying President Musk and calling Trump the Grifter-in-Chief. I guess the truth can be tough for some people,’ he added from his campaign account.