House Oversight Committee Democrats have once again failed to subpoena Elon Musk to testify on Capitol Hill.
The panel rejected the minority party’s request Thursday morning for the former DOGE chief to appear before lawmakers in a party-line, 21-20 votes. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), the committee’s acting ranking member, argued that Musk, DOGE and the Trump administration threatened “the privacy and security of all Americans,” and Musk should answer to the American people for actions over the last several months.
“Since President Trump’s inauguration, he has given Elon Musk free reign to terrorize our civil servants,” said Lynch, appearing before a number of giant posters, including one that read, “Was Elon Musk on drugs when he stole your private data?”
Lynch continued, “Musk has been operating without any oversight whatsoever, while posing a very real risk of violating security and privacy laws.”
After Lynch made his request for a vote on a motion to subpoena Musk, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) — who was presiding over committee business in the absence of chair James Comer (R-Ky.) — called up the motion as a voice vote, then claimed the “nays” prevailed. But Democrats cried foul, as they outnumbered Republicans present at the start of a scheduled hearing on the federal government’s use of artificial intelligence, and thus would have had the support to adopt the motion.
Democrats then demanded a roll call vote, forcing Mace to ultimately suspend the hearing while Republicans trickled into the hearing room to participate. During that long delay, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), who is running against Lynch and two other colleagues to be the ranking member on the committee to succeed the late-Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), asked whether the panel was not voting on the motion because Republicans knew they would lose. Mace argued that the panel was simply preparing for a recorded vote.
Oversight Committee Democrats previously tried to subpoena Musk months ago, with that vote also failing along party lines. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who notably missed that initial vote, was present this time around.
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