Democrat New York Rep. Yvette Clarke said on Tuesday that she will vote against Democrat-led bills in an attempt to stick it to Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk and congressional Republicans.
Clarke claimed she will continue to vote “no” on every piece of legislation until her Republican colleagues stop allegedly taking orders from Musk, who she accused of holding overbearing influence on the party. The congresswoman accused Republicans of taking orders from Musk by voting against the first version of a continuing resolution (CR) bill in December.
“Just as I was proud to join with Congressman Torres in supporting this bill last Congress and I am grateful for his continued leadership. And while my belief in this bill’s necessity remains absolute, I am simply stunned that it is not already law,” Clark said. “The leaders of this committee along with a bicameral, bipartisan group of congressional leaders negotiated an end-of-year package that included this very legislation along with a number of other bills being considered at today’s markup. Democrats and Republicans were willing and ready to pass this legislative package, most of which went through the regular order in December of 2024. The only reason these bills are not already law is because they were killed on the orders of one man, Elon Musk.”
The first version of the spending package, which contained 1,500 pages, intended to extend authorization for the Global Engagement Center (GEC), which had allegedly been involved in censoring the speech of conservatives, increased the debt limit without significant spending cuts and included $110 billion in disaster relief. Musk expressed his strong opposition to the bill in two X posts from Dec. 18, calling the legislation a “criminal bill” and saying any Republican lawmaker who voted in favor of it “deserves to be voted out in 2 years.”
WATCH:
Clarke said Musk’s opposition to the bill undermined “bipartisan negotiations to advance the priorities of both parties,” and thus stated that her opposition to every bill is to ensure that Republicans cannot boast about their legislation passing with unanimity.
“Business as usual for me is over,” Clarke said. “So while I still believe in this bill, and while I support a number of other bills in this markup on the merit, if my Republican colleagues want the ability to say their bills are passing in this committee unanimously, sorry to disappoint but that time is over. I will be voting no on every bill today and will continue to do so until we return to something approaching normalcy and the Democratic bills receive their deserved consideration.”
Thirty-eight Republicans voted against the first version of the CR that Musk expressed opposition to, though lawmakers overwhelmingly supported a trimmed down version of the legislation in a Dec. 20 vote.
Democrats have directed their ire toward Musk, who has worked to cut the size of the government in order to eliminate wasteful government spending. Months after Democrat lawmakers spewed violent rhetoric against Musk while protesting DOGE, a new survey from the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) found that “48% and 55% of “left of center” people “at least somewhat” justify the murder of Elon Musk and President Donald Trump.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.