Brian Barrett: Well, and I’ll start, just to make it clear, I think an important part of this is that the initial email does not say that they would be fired if they did not respond. The email itself just said: Send us a bullet list of five things you did last week. And then Elon separately on x tweet, by the way, if you do not write back, you will be forced to resign.
Katie Drummond: I hope that all kinds of 2.3 million federal workers regularly watch X, or that they will appear to miss important updates on their government’s employment status.
Brian Barrett: And truly, I talked to one person working at the federal government that Elon Musk dampened on X and only saw it late Monday. So it is just a part of the chaos that originated. The other part, and the bigger picture, is that leadership in all these agencies has no idea that it is coming. It was just a bomb that dropped on the federal workforce in the middle of the weekend. And that’s why there was a scramble with every agency that found out how to respond. At Noaa there was another feeling of not responding. It can be a phishing -E -mail. Let’s find it out. Then they decided as soon as they decided =
Katie Drummond: It certainly looks like spam.
Brian Barrett: Yes, it does. At other agencies there were kinds of, in general there is a sense of liking, let’s hold, let’s wait until Monday and you will get more guidance. Then some people are already writing back to the email. Some people are not. Some people haven’t even seen it yet. Then some agencies began to take a stand, including reports of the FBI, where Kash Patel, who is perhaps the most loyal of Trump loyalists in these positions, apparently drew a line and said, “No, don’t write back.” The State Department also said, “Absolutely not. You don’t.” And then we see some kind of mixed guidance at NIH. There was kind of yes, but no, but yes. Other agencies have not received any guidelines. In some cases, federal judges received this email.
It was a very Shambamolic episode that, I think, with how arbitrary, fickle, just stupid, very doge’s actions, and I mean stupid in the sense of not thinking about, but with very serious implications. In terms of where we end up, OPM later said: ‘No matter. You will not be fired. Don’t worry about it. ‘ And Elon Musk then tweeted useful that people would have another chance, but the next time they would be fired. Which was just a tweet.
Katie Drummond: And I believe that the president himself said something on Monday afternoon that they should respond better, or that they would be sorted or semi-fired. Which is again unclear, and to be serious for a moment, I mean, it’s a ridiculous email. This is a ridiculous situation. But putting myself in the shoes of someone working for the federal government is their livelihood. This is how they support their family. This is how they are paid.