'South African chainsaw massacre': CNN's Tapper slams 'heartlessness' in DOGE's job cuts
CNN's Jake Tapper slammed Elon Musk's latest stunt surrounding the massive federal job cuts perpetuated by his Department of Government Efficiency and claimed some Republicans have started to feel "uncomfortable" with the administration's tactics.
Tapper said DOGE's goal of cutting 10% of the federal workforce was being handled, "with very little transparency, not much compassion, questionable planning, and very little apparent attention to detail, at least according to critics."
So far, entire agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development have been shut down, while government leaders have been told to start firing "probationary" workers in a move that "could affect more than 200,000 federal employees," The Hill reported. The carnage isn't expected to end anytime soon, with employees at the Pentagon, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and even the Internal Revenue Service on the chopping block.
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"A couple of weeks ago, when this all started, we described the DOGE cuts as, quote, 'An ax being brandished and swung recklessly,' unquote. We apparently didn't go heavy duty enough, as Elon Musk yesterday on stage at CPAC wielded an actual chainsaw," Tapper said while playing a video of Musk waving around what he called, "the chainsaw for bureaucracy."
Tapper continued, "The 'South African chainsaw massacre' reveals something more serious: a lack of empathy for the thousands of Americans whose jobs are being slashed and lives are being upended. This same sense of callousness, minus the chainsaw, was also on display yesterday from another top Trump official, Kevin Hassett."
Video of Hassett showed him snickering while quipping about employees laid off for "poor performance."
"Kind of a heartless thing to say about thousands of your fellow Americans, many of whom are not being fired for poor performance," Tapper remarked.
He then spoke about Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) facing backlash from constituents who packed a town hall to demand answers, and Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) who told a local newspaper that DOGE was "not really factoring in the human element that these are real lives, real people."
"Beyond the recklessness, there's a heartlessness, a glee, and that glee has not gone unnoticed by one of the people whose Department of Education job is now gone. She's a disabled veteran," Tapper said before rolling tape of the heart-wrenching testimonial.
"That veteran's tears, all while the world's richest man waves a chainsaw in the air and giggles," Tapper said with disgust.
