In the News

WASHINGTON — Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) joined CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning to discuss the American public’s reception of DOGE, House Republicans’ work with the department to root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and President Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico. 

Click here or above to watch Whip Emmer on CNBC’s Squawk Box.

Whip Emmer on the public’s opinion of DOGE:

“I would say anecdotally, based on what I'm hearing back from my district, it's about 70-75% excited and happy that this is actually happening. They've been waiting for it for a long time, and you're right, you've got these activists—many of them are paid activists. They represent different groups that have been making their money off the government for decades and they don't want to see this happen, so they're literally trying to create some opposition that just doesn't exist. I would go back to the president's speech the other night, which they wanted to be negative about it. I think, depending on which poll you were looking at, 68-76% of Americans thought that was great. That's exactly what they want to hear. He made promises, Joe, and he is delivering on those promises. The Americans have voted for him. 77 million Americans are really happy about it.”

Whip Emmer on working with DOGE to carefully find and root out waste, fraud, and abuse:

“Elon Musk made a point to our members last night that they're not going to be batting 1,000% on everything. And he made a very direct request that if you have specific issues with constituents, get in touch with him directly [and] let him know. This has to happen. I would argue, Joe, the American public has been waiting for this for 30 years. And if you're not going to go after the waste, fraud, and abuse in government, if you're not going to try and reform it so that it gets back to serving the people instead of ruling over them, you're going to have to do some of this. And then it's up to us, the legislators, working with our constituents at home when there is that instance where something good got caught up with all this bad. I would blame the people, by the way, that turned our federal government into their personal ATM for their political agenda for putting all the good stuff at risk, too. It'll be up to us to work with Elon Musk and DOGE, but more importantly with the White House, to let them know that this one is important—this serves the mission of our federal government—and you went a little too far with whatever it is and then we'll see where it goes.”

Whip Emmer on President Trump’s tariffs:

“The president is actually fighting for the American people. It's a simple message. The message is: if you want to do business with us, then you need to treat our producers, you need to treat our imports, the way we treat yours. It's as simple as that. We will treat you as you treat us.”

“He has campaigned on this. He made a point to the American people: they don't care about you. We want free trade, but we want it to be fair. And he is trying to make it fair. I got a governor at home who's totally incompetent, who's saying that Trump doesn't care about the farmers. Well, I got news for him. What Trump is trying to do is make sure that our dairy industry has full and free access to the Canadian market just like we give the Canadians full and [fair] access to the US markets.”

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