'Damn right': Liz Cheney's past USAID employment faces backlash after lashing out at Elon Musk
Former GOP Congresswoman Liz Cheney was ripped by conservatives on social media after she defended her previous work at USAID, which became the most prominent target of DOGE in recent days, in an exchange on X that drew the attention of DOGE’s leader, Elon Musk.
"Damn right, @Elon," Cheney said on X in response to Musk, tagging an account that does not belong to Musk, on Wednesday. "I’m proud of what America did to win the Cold War, defeat Soviet communism, and defend democracy. Our nation stood for freedom. You may be unfamiliar with that part of our history since you weren’t yet an American citizen."
Musk had written "interesting" in response to a post from Foundation for Freedom Online Executive Director Mike Benz, who had written that Cheney was "spawned" out of USAID, citing her previous position as an officer for the embattled and now seemingly shuttered agency.
Cheney spent time at USAID working within embassies related to efforts in Poland, Hungary, Russia and Ukraine.Several conservatives on social media took issue with Cheney’s comment and defended Musk against any implication that he is "unfamiliar" with U.S. history.
"He is an American by choice instead of by birth, which is a weird thing to insult someone over, but more importantly, he didn't commit so many crimes against the country that he had to be pardoned by Joe Biden, so he's got that going for him," Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway posted on X.
"You care more about illegals coming to this country stealing from this country than @elon giving to this country," former Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones posted on X.
"Ya, but he was around when your daddy was making the military industrial complex billions sending me and my buddies to die chasing the ghosts of WMDs in Iraq," Fox News contributor Joey Jones posted on X.
