Lawrence O'Donnell spent his segment on 'The Last Word' rightfully shaming the White House press corps for failing to ask about Elon Musk "literally snatching food away from starving babies." He did say that Musk was asked about his conflicts of interest, but nothing was asked about "Musk's decision supported by Donald Trump to take food away from starving babies, from starving mothers, from starving grandparents."
"Today, a few members of the White House press corps were allowed to ask questions in the White House press briefing room with the White House press secretary at the podium, something that doesn't happen every day in the Trump White House, but did happen every day in the Biden White House," O'Donnell said. "They asked questions about Elon Musk's possible conflict of interest, but no one in the White House press corps asked a question about Elon Musk, literally snatching food away from starving babies."
"There has not been one question asked in the White House by anyone in the White House press corps to the White House press secretary or to Donald Trump about Elon Musk's decision supported by Donald Trump to take food away from starving babies, from starving mothers, from starving grandparents in Sudan, where the United States Agency for International Development was saving lives every day," he continued. "By getting food to people in the middle of a famine, Elon Musk's conflicts of interest, though, of course, are not as important."
"As the people that he is actually killing in Africa this week, and that is what he's doing, that is what's happening; you heard Dr. Atul Gawande, former USAID official on this program Monday night, saying lives have already been lost people have already died," he said. Because of what Elon Musk decided to do to them."
"Elon Musk is African," O'Donnell continued. "He is from the continent that has suffered more starvation during his lifetime than anywhere else in the world, but when the White House press corps got their chance to ask him questions yesterday, not one of them asked how it feels to be holding his child in the Oval Office while he is starving children in Africa while children and their parents and their grandparents are dying because of his decision."
"The White House press secretary pretended that she was presenting proof of what she called fraudulent expenditures by the United States Agency for International Development today; she waved around a piece of paper," he said. "And claiming that it showed $57,000 in an expenditure in Sri Lanka for, we're not sure what, that she didn't like, but she's sure it's fraudulent."
"Now, $57,000 is a lot of money," The Last Word host said. "But it's not a lot of money in the budget of the United States of America, and it's not a lot of money in the budget of USAID. Elon Musk stopped $40 billion of aid spending, humanitarian aid spending around the world by USAID because he says he found a $57,000 item that he doesn't like, and that was it."
"$57,000 was the total amount of complaints of abusive spending that the White House came up with today as the reason to stop $40 billion in aid, as the reason to starve children, as the reason to deny medical care to a 71-year-old woman who was turned away from a hospital after USAID was shut down, thereby killing her," he continued. "That's what happened, that's what we did, killing her. "
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"Let's just assume for a moment that the $57,000 that USAID spent in Sri Lanka was a complete waste of money," O'Donnell said. "Do you shut down an entire operation, a $40 billion operation, an entire government agency over a disputed $57,000?"
"The first claim by Elon Musk about shutting down USAID was that it had to be shut down temporarily so that they could properly evaluate all of its spending to make careful decisions about what should be cut, and a day later, Elon Musk was saying that USAID must be thrown in the wood chipper," he continued. "That was his term, the wood chipper."
"But what manner of man would decide that the thing that has to be stopped immediately is the delivery of food to starving children?" he added.
He's not wrong. Children are starving. Seems important! Unless, of course, you're a greedy, narcissistic billionaire who has no problem accepting handouts from the government while people starve to death.
