Jessica Tarlov, the lone leftist panelist on Fox News’ “The Five,” attempted a gotcha moment with Elon Musk and his efforts with the Department of Government Efficiency but failed to land a punch.
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Tarlov prefaced her question by proclaiming her family’s love for Tesla — as if that somehow proved her objectivity — and tried to corner Musk on the intersection of government contracts, regulatory scrutiny, and his companies’ subsidies. “You’ve been making cuts to a lot of the agencies that have open investigations and regulatory battles with your companies,” she said, spewing Democrat talking points. “At the same time, you continue to get billions in government contracts. Tesla gets billions in subsidies. How do you explain that to the American people?”
Of course, Musk didn’t hesitate to push back. “Well, everything that DOGE does is an open book,” he responded, dismissing any suggestion of impropriety. “I think [we’re] the most transparent organization in government ever. Every single DOGE action is listed on the doge.gov website. It’s also listed on the X handle. So if anyone has a concern about any one of those actions, they can bring that up; they can raise that.”
Rather than sidestep the question, Musk leaned into the idea of transparency and accountability. “I do wanna say, sometimes we make a mistake. Nobody bats a thousand,” he admitted. “We will, at times, make a mistake, and if we make a mistake, we’ll act very quickly to correct it.”
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Musk also noted that he operates under relentless scrutiny, which makes it impossible for him to engage in anything questionable. “I am under such an extreme spotlight, so much scrutiny, that it is literally impossible for me to get away with anything nefarious. And obviously, nor do I wish to,” he said.
His response ultimately dismantled Tarlov’s attempt to corner him. “We have radical transparency,” he emphasized. “Often people are not willing to admit they make mistakes, but we are. But we want to emphasize we fix them quickly, and we’re trying to do the right thing for the American taxpayer, for the American people. And I think history will be the judge that what we’ve done here and what we’re doing is a very good thing for the strength and future of America.”
Tarlov may have meant her line of questioning as a trap, but Musk’s response turned the moment into a lesson in accountability and transparency, which left Tarlov with nothing to argue against.
🚨 “Liberal Tesla Lover” Jessica Tarlov tries (& FAILS) to pin @elonmusk for using his DOGE position to leverage corrupt schemes for his companies: “How do you explain THAT to the American people?!”
“Everything that DOGE does is an open book. We are the most transparent… pic.twitter.com/fCnyTfqMNl
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 1, 2025
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It’s truly astonishing how the left clings to its talking points, even after they’ve been thoroughly debunked. Take the government contracts Tesla has received — those came under Joe Biden, not Donald Trump. But leftists like Tarlov completely ignore that inconvenient fact.
Then there’s SpaceX. Do they forget that Musk’s company is revolutionizing space travel by making it more affordable? Despite this, the left still whines that SpaceX gets government contracts. It’s even more baffling that the left acts like SpaceX is undeserving after it rescued the astronauts Joe Biden left stranded at the International Space Station. Despite all that, leftists are still trying to weaponize those very contracts for political gain. The hypocrisy is staggering, but here we are.
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