JD Vance Is Right, Elon Musk Should Rehire Doxxed Former DOGE Staffer Marko Elez : Bobby Burack
Marko Elez, 25, resigned from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) this week after a Wall Street Journal journalist uncovered that he once ran a now-deleted social media account that advocated for eugenics and called himself racist.
"Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool," the account posted in July.
"You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity," the account wrote on X in September. "Normalize Indian hate," the account wrote the same month, in reference to a post noting the prevalence of people from India in Silicon Valley.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Elez resigned after WSJ reporter Katherine Lon pressured the White House to respond to the posts.
Elon Musk, the head of DOGE, responded to the news by calling Long a "disgusting and cruel" person who the paper should "fire immediately." He also ran an X poll asking if he should rehire Elez, to which nearly 80% of respondents said yes – including Vice President JD Vance.
"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 responded. "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 the team, fire him for that."
JD Vance Advocates For Former DOGE Staffer
That is so well said. (And why Vance is the natural successor to the MAGA movement. #Vance2028.)
For years, bloodthirsty journalists have doxxed people they do not like politically by linking them to anonymous accounts or posts they may have made when they were teenagers. It's such an immoral and unproductive use of influence.
As a society, we should judge employees for who they are as people and workers, not what they say behind some pseudonym on X. As Vance suggests, if Elez is actually a racist or a bad guy, fire him for that.
Based on his résumé, Elez is quite impressive.
As a sophomore at Rutgers University, Elez co-founded a company, Unimetrics.io, that aimed to connect high school students with mentors who could help burnish their college applications. He then took a job working for Musk at SpaceX, where he focused on Starlink satellites.
LANDOVER, MARYLAND - DECEMBER 14: (L-R) U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA), President-elect Donald Trump, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Vice President-elect JD Vance attend the 125th Army-Navy football game at Northwest Stadium on December 14, 2024 in Landover, Maryland. Trump is attending the game with lawmakers and Cabinet nominees including, Vice President-elect JD Vance, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA), Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and others. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Marko Elez Excercised Freedom Of Speech
Musk should not bring Elez back because his poll results say so. He should bring him back because Elez should never have had to resign in the first place. Put simply, DOGE cannot run efficiently if it plays by the same rules of cowardice as other agencies.
Maybe some of Elez's posts were distasteful, but you can't have freedom of speech without the freedom to be wrong. At worst, he committed a thought crime. Now, what about all of those in Washington who have committed actual crimes?
Hopefully, Vance's words make Musk see that.
If more political and corporate leaders were as thoughtful and decent as Vance, cancel culture would have never crept into the mainstream and become the virus that it has. Canceling cancel culture is just as important as ending DEI.
Katherine Long is probably already scouring the Internet Wayback Machine to try to ruin the life of another member of DOGE. The vultures are never satisfied.
Bring Elez back and disempower the dox merchants.