Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday said he supported the rehiring of a DOGE staffer who quit after being linked to racist posts he made on X under a pseudonym.
"I obviously disagree with some of [Marko] Elez's posts, but I don't think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life," Vance wrote on X. "We shouldn't reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So, I say bring him back. If he's a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that."
Elez, 25, quit on Thursday amid questions from The Wall Street Journal about links to a deleted social media account that advocated for racism and eugenics, according to the Journal's subsequently published story.
In July, the account tied to Elez posted: "Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool."
"You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity," the account wrote on X in September. "Normalize Indian hate," the account wrote the same month, in reference to a post noting the prevalence of people from India in Silicon Valley.
Vance's wife, Usha, is the first Indian American and first Hindu to be second lady of the United States.
Elon Musk on Friday posted a poll with the question: "Bring back @DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym?"
Seventy-eight percent said yes, while 22% voted no.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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