Hundreds of protesters, including several prominent congressional Democrats, rallied outside the Treasury Department on Tuesday to demand an end to what they called Elon Musk's "corporate heist" of the federal government, leading to the White House calling one lawmaker's comments a "despicable call for violence."
Lawmakers at the protest included Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and House Financial Services Committee ranking member Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., reported The Guardian.
The White House took issue with one lawmaker in particular, Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., after she called to "Shut down the city! We are at war!"
No violence was reported at the protest.
"Her sick threat comes days after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., instructed his members to 'fight' against President Trump's agenda 'in the streets,'" the White House said in a statement, adding that "the lack of condemnation over this type of unhinged behavior is deafening."
Last week, the White House demanded that Jeffries apologize after he declared during a press conference in New York that Democrats will fight for "everyday Americans who are under assault by an extreme MAGA Republican agenda that is trying to cut taxes for billionaires, donors, and wealthy corporations and then stick New Yorkers and working-class Americans across the country with the bill."
"We are going to fight it legislatively. We are going to fight it in the courts. And we're going to fight it in the streets," Jeffries also said.
About three dozen Senate and House Democrats on Tuesday said they tried to gain entry to the Treasury Department but were rebuffed.
The protesters outside the department Tuesday, including several members of the public, targeted the reports of Musk's "DOGE" team's being given access to the federal payments system.
"He has access to all our information, our Social Security numbers, the federal payment system," Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., said. "What's going to stop him from stealing taxpayer money?”
The Treasury Department has stated that Musk's team was given "read-only" access to "coded data" from the government payment system.
Jonathan Blum, the Treasury Department's principal deputy assistant secretary for legislative affairs, wrote to Wyden that the system remains “robust and effective," and said no payment valid requests from government agencies were rejected.
The letter added that the review was being undertaken to "maximize payment integrity for agencies and the public."
But on Tuesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told the crowd of protesters that "Every American's information is at risk. What does Elon Musk do with everything he touches? He makes money."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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