The early successes of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in exposing rampant waste, fraud and abuse throughout the federal government have left the left scrambling- including their allies in the media. The resulting derangement rendered ABC News a crisis spokesperson for the beleaguered Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Watch as anchor David Muir and correspondent Rachel Scott build the CFPB up as perfect victims, á la USAID:
DAVID MUIR: There's another developing headline involving President Trump at this hour. A judge extending his block on the president's effort to get millions of federal workers to resign, to take a buyout or risk getting fired. Tonight, the vice president and Elon Musk are now openly questioning the authority of some of these judges. And now, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been halted. Workers told to stay home. Protests outside today. The Bureau, set up to protect Americans from banks becoming too big to fail, and to protect against risky mortgages, and other financial products after the banking collapse and Great Recession. So, is the Bureau's work protecting consumers over? Here's our Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott tonight.
RACHEL SCOTT: Tonight in Washington, frustrated workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau demanding to be let in to do their jobs.
WORKERS: Let us work!
SCOTT: After Elon Musk essentially shut down the agency, posting on X, "CFPB RIP." The Bureau, the government's consumer watchdog, created after the 2008 financial crisis and housing crash to protect American families from unfair and deceptive practices on everything from mortgages to credit cards to bank fees and student loans. But this morning, employees got an email from White House Budget Director Russell Vought saying they should not come into the office, and instructing them: “please do not perform work tasks.”
CFPB WORKER: You show up to work on Monday morning excited to get started on the week. I had an agenda of things I was ready to do to fight for American consumers, and to be told that I'm not supposed to do that is heartbreaking.
Won’t someone think of the poor CFPB employee, heartbroken because there won’t be any debanking today? The success of this psychological operation passing itself off as news is predicated on ABC’s ability to pass the CFPB off as a noble consumer watchdog, in contrast with its actual record as Elizabeth Warren’s constitutionally-dubious financial Stasi that is not funded through the normal federal appropriations process but through the Federal Reserve.
Coverage of the CFPB as it gets deleted has been comparable to that of the USAID, minus the witness protection-style interviews of employees who are neither federal whistleblowers nor in actual and literal witness protection. Both have been equally hysterical.
The focus of the rest of the story echoed the media’s grave concerns that the Trump Administration might ignore a court order. One wonders where this focus was as Joe Biden repeatedly attempted to circumvent the Supreme Court in order to impose his student loan “relief”.
With many of these injunctions against Trump executive orders in the lower courts, watch the media’s tone as they make their way through the appellate process and on to the Supreme Court. Will they continue to defend the integrity of the courts then, or will they join the braying mobs and try to pressure the Court majority??
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on ABC World News Tonight on Monday, February 10th, 2024:
DAVID MUIR: There's another developing headline involving President Trump at this hour. A judge extending his block on the president's effort to get millions of federal workers to resign, to take a buyout or risk getting fired. Tonight, the vice president and Elon Musk are now openly questioning the authority of some of these judges. And now, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been halted. Workers told to stay home. Protests outside today. The Bureau, set up to protect Americans from banks becoming too big to fail, and to protect against risky mortgages, and other financial products after the banking collapse and Great Recession. So, is the Bureau's work protecting consumers over? Here's our Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott tonight.
RACHEL SCOTT: Tonight in Washington, frustrated workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau demanding to be let in to do their jobs.
WORKERS: Let us work!
SCOTT: After Elon Musk essentially shut down the agency, posting on X, "CFPB RIP." The Bureau, the government's consumer watchdog, created after the 2008 financial crisis and housing crash to protect American families from unfair and deceptive practices on everything from mortgages to credit cards to bank fees and student loans. But this morning, employees got an email from White House Budget Director Russell Vought saying they should not come into the office, and instructing them: “please do not perform work tasks.”
CFPB WORKER: You show up to work on Monday morning excited to get started on the week. I had an agenda of things I was ready to do to fight for American consumers, and to be told that I'm not supposed to do that is heartbreaking.
SCOTT: Like 2 million other federal workers, the people here face a stark choice. Take the government's buyout offer to get paid through September, or risk getting laid off. April Goggins, who works for the Department of Health and Human Services, wrestled with that decision.
APRIL GOGGINS: I think the last three weeks have been a little bit like, some psychological warfare, I mean, just getting tossed back and forth between do I need to worry about moving, am I going to lose my house, do I need to worry about my job? And what can I and cannot do?
SCOTT: The deadline to accept that deal was extended to today. Now a federal judge has put it on hold yet again. But April tells me her decision is made.
GOGGINS: No, I’m not resigning. I’m going to hold the line. I'm not resigning.
SCOTT: Why?
GOGGINS: Um- first of all, you're not going to -- you're not going to bully me out of a job.
SCOTT: The judge's decision to put the buyout offer on hold, just one in a series of legal setbacks for the new administration. And on X, Musk lashing out at the judges. Calling a New York judge who blocked his efforts to access Treasury data “a corrupt judge protecting corruption,” adding, “he needs to be impeached now”. Vice President JD Vance taking it even further, posting, "If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power." The big question, will the administration openly defy the rulings of these courts? Tonight, one federal judge determined that's already happening, finding the administration violated his order to fully lift its pause of federal funding, calling the pause “likely unconstitutional”, and adding that “it continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country.” Elon Musk and his team have already gained access into at least 15 federal agencies. Musk, a billionaire, is the world's richest man. He owns the social media platform X, Tesla, and SpaceX. And tonight, there are reports that he's making a play to buy OpenAI, a leading artificial intelligence company. The president did launch an initiative with companies including OpenAI, so this does raise questions about a possible conflict of interest for Musk, who is working with this administration and raises concerns about his growing influence, David.
MUIR: Rachel Scott there at The White House as well. Rachel, thank you.
