Fox News host Shannon Bream grilled House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) after he pushed claims that USAID was a waste of taxpayer money, noting that many of the claims from conservatives had been "debunked."
During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Johnson suggested he was "comforted" by the way President Donald Trump and DOGE Chair Elon Musk were dismantling the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
"I'm not uncomfortable with the pace of this," Johnson insisted. "He's fulfilling all of our campaign promises."
"This idea, you know, all the controversy about Elon Musk helping us out," he continued. "They're going through to find efficiencies. There has been massive fraud, waste, and abuse of the American taxpayer's dollars, and this is the best way to do it. You bring in, effectively, an outside auditor, and that's what Elon and the team are doing. And what they're uncovering is incredible abuses of the public."
"So some of the things that have been uncovered have been specifically linked to USAID."
Bream countered: "Some of these have been debunked, or there's context for them. But there are important things that USAID does as well with food, with medical care, those kinds of things."
"But do you worry also the goodwill that may be destroyed and the other actors that may move in when we pull out of some of these really critical funding issues?" she asked.
"We are the good guys," Johnson said dismissively. "And we do some good things, and that in USAID.
"I am comforted to know that Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, and folks are actually sitting down line by line and going through, eliminating the abuses of taxpayer dollars, and defining and protecting the things that are certainly in America's interest and are the right thing to do, as you said," he added. "So we'll get this sorted out, but I think that that effort is long overdue."
