See below for video and highlights from this afternoon’s rally by several Democratic members of Congress – including Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA07), Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08), Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA10) and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA11) against Trump’s and Musk’s assault against USAID. A few key points: 1) what Musk and Trump are doing is ” a crime that is unfolding before our eyes “; 2) “USAID was established by an act of Congress and it can only be disbanded by an act of Congress.”; 3) “It is a matter of statute, it’s a matter for Congress to deal with, not an unelected billionaire oligarch named Elon Musk”; 4) AID is a superb agency that saves lives around the world, promotes democracy and US interests, etc; 5) hurting or even dismantling USAID only helps our adversaries, like China and Russia, while harming our allies and our own country; 6) this is a matter of US national security…
Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08): “We are here today to shine a light on a crime that is unfolding before our eyes and support our tremendous US civil servants in US AID. President Trump directed his corrupt billionaire friend, Elon Musk, to ransack a critical agency of the US government. Musk and his band of unelected acolytes at DOGE have locked out USAID employees from their offices, improperly accessed highly classified information, purged the agency of its nonpartisan leadership and thrown the agency into chaos through a concerted campaign of harassment and intimidation of its employees. This is on top of Trump’s freeze of crucial foreign assistance programs. These actions severely harm our national security, they put thousands of children around the world at immediate risk of starvation, disease and death and sidelines some of our finest. Civil servants work tirelessly every day to make the world a better place. This is a case of the very worst among us attacking the very best of us. The work USAID does is vital to all Americans. Agency employees stationed here in the capital region and in posts around the world work hand in and with our military to counter terrorism and to stabilize dangerous regions. They monitor and they fight diseases like Ebola and bird flu, to prevent them from coming to the United States. And they work with the US companies to provide life-saving medical care and food assistance for children. Through these activities and others, USAID has been an invaluable pillar of US foreign policy and projecting American power overseas. Its elimination only helps our adversaries, Russia and China, who want to see our global influence reduced at any cost. It’s no coincidence then that Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man with billions of dollars of investment in China, is doing China’s bidding. Lastly, what Trump and Musk have done is not only wrong, it’s illegal. USAID was established by an act of Congress and it can only be disbanded by an act of Congress. Stopping this will require action by the courts and for Republicans to show up and show courage and stand up for our country. Further, I’m urging my fellow Democrats to use every legislative tool we have at our disposal to slow down and stop this crime from succeeding. We’re here to shine a light on this; you see the wonderful people that are here with us.”
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA11): “We’re here today not only to fight for federal employees who dedicate themselves every day to a humanitarian task. We are here to save lives. Because that is what AID does. You name it, AID is there in the fight against HIV, in the fight to protect the Uyghur population in China, in the fight to protect refugees, in the fight to make sure that there’s food security everywhere, AID is there. It is the lead development agency in the world – and no one elected Elon Musk to dismantle it. We are going to fight in every way we can – in the courts, in public opinion, with the bully pulpit, in the halls of Congress and here at AID itself. We are not going to let this injustice happen. Congress created this agency with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, and if you want to change it, you got to change that law. It is a matter of statute, it’s a matter for Congress to deal with, not an unelected billionaire oligarch named Elon Musk. And Elon, if you want to run AID, get nominated by Trump and go to the Senate and good luck in getting confirmed. I want to say to all the employees of AID, we are with you, we will stand with you shoulder to shoulder. This may be a long and difficult struggle and fight, but we’re with you. Don’t give up, keep the fight and remember the mission is so sacred – saving lives all over the world”
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA10): “I’m Congressman Suhas Subramanyam. Enough is enough! We will not stand for this! This is illegal, this is wrong and this is unconstitutional! It takes an act of Congress to shut down USAID. But you know what, Congress will not let this happen. We will not let this happen. USAID keeps us safe…it prevents wars, it keeps people fed, it keeps people healthy, and it is the shining example of democracy and of the American values that we so hold dearly that we share with the rest of the world. So the work of the USAID is so important and we must protect it, we must fight for it. And as the chair of the subcommittee on military and foreign affairs on the oversight committee, we will call for hearings and we will ask for answers. We will demand answers on why this is happening. But most importantly, we will not let it happen. And we will fight for you, for all the people who rely on USAID for their health care, for their food security, for the men and women who serve us and work for USAID, the contractors, the civil servants. We will stand up for you because when we fight we do win.”
Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA07): “My name is Eugene Vindman. I spent 25 years in the army defending this nation, wearing the uniform. And each and every one of those days, we worked with our partners at USAID to keep this country strong and safe. If we want to zero out the budget, 1% of the budget of this country, $40 billion, we better look at double or tripling the military budget, because without that soft power around the world, we are making ourselves weaker, we’re making our adversaries…stronger, we step back and we create a vacuum. You know who steps in? It’s Russia, it’s China, it’s our adversaries from around the world. So from a point of national security, the work that you all are doing out here at USAID, many of you my constituents – we have over 55,000 federal government employees in the seventh congressional district – I thank you, I thank you for your hard work. We’ve got some tough times ahead, but Congress and the American people are behind you. And let me just put one concrete way that we are actually damaging our national security right now. Every single day, Ukraine is taking the brunt of Russian attacks on infrastructure. USAID programs are actually rebuilding the infrastructure, the electricity infrastructure. If this Administration wants to bring peace to Ukraine, you don’t do that by eliminating the support for the infrastructure in Ukraine, you do that by applying pressure to Russia – and not just to Ukraine. So my message is we support you at USAID. This is a matter of US national security. Democrats, my colleagues, we’re going to fight like hell to make sure that we preserve our national security.”
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