Brian Bart: Well, and I start, just to clarify, I think an important part of this initial email is not saying that if they didn’t answer, they will be fired. This email just said, send us a list of five of what you did last week. And then Elon tweeted on X separately, anyway, if you don’t write again, you will have to resign.
Kitty Drummund: I hope that all types of 2.3 million federal workers regularly examine X or seem to lose important updates about their employment situation.
Brian Bart: And really, I talked to a person who works in the federal government who has turned off Elon Maskak on X and has never seen it until late Monday. So this is just part of chaos. The other part and the bigger part is that leadership in all these agencies seems to have no idea of this. It was just a bomb that crashed into the federal labor force at mid -weekend. And for that reason, there was a struggle in every agency that he knew how to answer. In Noaa, there was a feeling that you still didn’t answer. This may be a phishing email. Let’s understand it. Then they decided once =
Kitty Drummund: Surely it looks like spam.
Brian Bart: Yes, this in other agencies is generally feeling like, let’s keep, let’s wait for Monday and you will have more guidance. In the meantime, some people are writing to email. Some people aren’t. Some people haven’t even seen it. Then some agencies began to take a stand, including reports, FBI, where Patel, who may have been Trump’s most loyal loyalty in these positions, apparently drawn a line, saying, “No, don’t write it.” The State Department also said, “Out of the matter. You don’t.” And then we have some kind of mixed saws in NiH somehow. There was a kind of yes but no but yes. Other agencies did not receive any instructions. In some cases, federal judges received this email.
It was a really embarrassing episode that I think with arbitrary, deceptive, just stupid, many DOGE actions, and I don’t mean to think stupid, but with very serious consequences it is obvious. As we landed on it, OPM said later, “Never pay attention. You’re not fired. Don’t worry about this.” And Elun Mesak then tweeted that people gain a chance, but the next time, they will be fired. That was just a tweet again.
Kitty Drummund: And I believe that the President himself said something better on Monday afternoon that they would respond better or they will be somehow evil or fired. I mean again, it is incredibly unclear and serious for a minute, this is a ridiculous email. This is a ridiculous situation. But I put myself in the shoes of the person currently working for the federal government, this is their livelihood. This is how they support their family. This is paid.
