Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, spoke to reporters on Capitol Hill in the wake of Elon Musk’s unilateral shuttering of USAID over the weekend and into Monday.

Wicker was asked about the decades-old humanitarian aid agency being gutted by Musk and he answered, “Well, I’m interested in hearing more about it. I’ve heard press reports.”

“If there’s massive fraud, if the funds aren’t being directed where the Congress has appropriated and the president signed. We need to know about that. So and I’m actually in a fact-finding mood,” added Wicker.

“Do you support that agency in providing foreign aid?” followed up a reporter.

“I have I have felt for a long time that USAID is is our way to combat the Belt and Road Initiative, which is China’s effort to really gain influence around the world, including Africa and South America in the Western Hemisphere,” replied Wicker, adding:

So we need an aid program to match the Chinese effort, but it needs to be done in a way that the policymakers of the United States have decided ought to be done. And so I’m eager to see an audit and see the sort of mismanagement that the secretary of state has told us about today.

Notably, Musk has long been accused of playing both sides in the U.S.-China relationship, given his close business ties to China and his lack of public criticism of the CCP.

“But they can’t just close it without Congress’s content?” pressed CNN’s Manu Raju.

“Well, I, I don’t know what the emergency powers are, and I’m sure some people are looking into that,” replied Wicker.

“Are you concerned that Congress didn’t get a heads-up about this?” followed up CBS’s Caitlin Huey-Burns.

“Well, things are moving very fast in these the first two weeks of the administration. It is something that that I had not been notified about. But again, this is just foreign relations and appropriations. And I would not necessarily have been notified. But we check again. Things are happening fast. And we’re we’re going to find out a lot more. There’s good communication,” responded Wicker.

“What about Elon Musk gaining access to U.S. treasury systems?” Raju followed up.

“That’s something that needs to be looked into. Again, and I’m hearing something when I wake up this morning and we’ve had a full day. And of course, I’m listening to press reports and thank goodness for the First Amendment. And I appreciate what you guys are doing. You’re asking the right questions that we’re going to be asking them also. So thanks much,” Wicker replied trying to end the Q&A.

“Do you want Congress, though, to have a role to play?” pressed Huey-Burns.

“I want Congress to exercise its right and power as a co-equal branch of the federal government. Yes, I do,” Wicker replied before turning to move on.

Watch the clip above via CBS.

The post Republican Senator Argues USAID Is Essential to ‘Combat’ China Globally — As Elon Musk Guts The Agency first appeared on Mediaite.

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