Elon Musk gets called a lot of names by a lot of people, but not many elected officials find the courage to call him a “dick” without fear of the DOGE bros coming for them, unless you’re Senator Tina Smith that is, the Democrat from Minnesota who sat down for a wide-ranging interview with Mehdi in her office on Capitol Hill.
“It's so important that we speak out, that we speak the truth, that we don't hold back,” says Smith, a progressive Democrat who found Musk’s move to email federal employees asking them to list their weekly completed tasks a step too far for an unelected billionaire.
“I felt so angry for everybody who had gotten that email, understanding they were under so much pressure and so much uncertainty anyway, and I'm like… Who are you? Like, what gives you the right?” The answer? Trump, but Smith has a theory about that:
“Trump is responsible, but don't you think that sometimes he's happy to have Musk out there, sort of absorbing some of that attack?... it’s all performative.”
The senator’s harsh words are not exclusively reserved for Musk and Trump though, as the Minnesota senator is just as unfiltered in her criticisms of the Democratic Party to which she belongs, a party that she describes today as being “too cautious.”
“I think Democrats have to have a real reckoning about the fact that the relationship that we thought we had with voters, our base voters and others, that relationship is not that great. It's weak. People don't think that we're standing up for them.”
The Minnesota senator recently announced that she will not be seeking reelection next year, making this her final term as an elected official. “I think there's great power in coming, serving for a while, doing everything that you can, and then moving on,” she tells Mehdi.
If you are a paid subscriber, you can watch the full interview above to hear why Smith thinks Democrats should be “getting the hell out of Washington,” the Biden administration’s support for Israel, and her response to Mehdi’s questions on leadership, Chuck Schumer, and more.
Note: This interview was taped just prior to Friday’s controversial cloture vote in the Senate.
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In case you missed them, here are some of our other interviews with House officials:
