Vice President JD Vance is going to bat for a former Elon Musk staffer who resigned from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) earlier this week after being connected to a social media account responsible for a number of racist and offensive tweets.

The Wall Street Journal published a story on Thursday about Marko Elez, a “key DOGE staff member who gained access to the Treasury Department’s central-payments system” and resigned “after he was linked to a deleted social-media account that advocated racism and eugenics.”

Elez resigned after the Journal asked the White House about Elez’s connection to the account, but that hasn’t stopped Musk from defending Elez on X by suggesting that the reporter responsible for uncovering Elez’s social media activity should be fired.

Musk then posted a poll asking, “Bring back @DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym?”  Nearly 80% of the poll’s respondents voted “yes.”

Vance responded to the controversy by calling for Elez to be rehired.

“Here’s my view: I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life,” Vance told his followers in a post on X. “We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever.”

Here’s my view:

I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life.

We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever.

So I say bring him back.

If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of… https://t.co/OgG6Z3hKPE

— JD Vance (@JDVance) February 7, 2025

“So I say bring him back,” the vice president added. “If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.”

According to the Journal, Elez expressed support for both Gaza and Israel being “wiped off the face of the Earth” as well as the repeal of the Civil Rights Act. The account also endorsed a “eugenic immigration policy,” boasted that its owner “was racist before it was cool,” and proudly proclaimed that “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.”

 

The post JD Vance Goes to Bat for 25-Year-Old ‘Kid’ Elon Musk Staffer Who Resigned Over Racist Tweets: ‘Bring Him Back’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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