Republican strategist Scott Jennings gave CNN panelists upset over an email asking government workers to outline their accomplishments a reality check Monday night, reminding them that all federal employees have President Donald Trump as their boss.
White House Senior Advisor Elon Musk posted on X Saturday that federal employees needed to tell the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) what they accomplished the previous week in an email due by 11:59 p.m. Monday. “The View” co-host Ana Navarro claimed the email was “abusive” to government employees and that the cuts were “ haphazard.”
“If they did it surgically, if they did it strategically, if they did it deliberately and thoughtfully, I don’t think anybody would have an issue with cutting some government waste with identifying programs that are not working, but the way they are doing it is haphazard, it is dangerous, it is, frankly, abusive of federal workers and it is just plain wrong,” Navarro proclaimed, touching off a back-and-forth involving her, co-panelist Tara Setmayer and Jennings.
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“It’s abusive to send an email?” Jennings asked, with Navarro responding, “Yes, I do. I do think that I think the way that they are. Yeah, I think the way that they are treating them-”.
Trump appointed Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy as co-chairs of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Nov. 12, with Ramaswamy stepping down Jan. 20 to prepare to run for governor of Ohio. According to the DOGE website, at least $55 billion in savings have been identified since Trump established DOGE in a Jan. 20 executive order.
“How is this abusive?” Jennings asked, with Setmayer complaining about workers being told that a failure to respond would mean they were fired.
“It‘s called having a boss in the private sector,” Jennings responded, with Setmayer shooting back, “From someone who’s not your boss?”
“Well, the White House is every federal worker’s boss, that’s number one,” Jennings said as Setmayer and “CNN NewsNight host Abby Phillip” tried to talk over him, adding, “The test was are you even paying attention to your email? Are you even at your terminal?”
In a post on X Monday afternoon, Musk granted federal employees a “second chance” to reply to an email asking what they accomplished. Some agencies, notably the FBI and Department of Defense, have said they won’t respond to the email.
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