U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) whistleblower Rob Cohen said Friday evening on Fox News that he believes “tremendous waste” runs throughout the federal government and beyond USAID.
Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) Elon Musk announced Monday during an X discussion space that he and President Donald Trump had agreed to upend USAID, pushing the remainder of the agency under the leadership of Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Since the announcement, reports have surfaced of billions in taxpayer dollars being wasted on international programs by the government agency, some of which had a high risk of landing in the Taliban’s hands and also aiding an organization linked to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Appearing on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Fox host Jesse Watters pressed the whistleblower, who had worked at the agency since 2016, on how the “system” worked during his time there, asking if “people running the subcontractors” were receiving ample amounts of funds.
“Well, I have to say this — I want to be careful that this is a classic case where we want to avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater. USAID does save babies. That said, it does. Studies show that up to seven million children have been prevented from being born with HIV by giving drugs to HIV positive mothers while they’re giving childbirth. That’s a wonderful thing,” Cohen said.
“That said, there is tremendous waste within the aid industrial complex. This is well known. It’s been well documented,” Cohen added. “It’s probably not unique to USAID. It’s probably true across the federal government, in which most contractors charge overhead that is beyond what any reasonable business would consider appropriate. Therefore, the American taxpayer does not get the return on investment that we expect.”
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Due to the exposure of funds, Democrats have pushed back throughout the week, saying that the move of the agency is illegal. They have also protested Musk’s involvement with the Trump administration. Watters went on to ask the whistleblower about being “punished” for speaking out in the agency, highlighting that he is a Democrat.
“That’s exactly right. So I was elevated to be the acting deputy chief of staff of the Global Health Bureau during COVID, and I immediately observed incredible delay and arrogance on the part of career bureaucrats who I fought and frankly cleaned up their mess,” Cohen said. “Instead of being appreciative that we avoided an embarrassment, I was retaliated against. I had to sue them under the Whistleblower Protection Act, which is detailed in my op ed. Then they proceeded to botch 10 times more money.”
“I should add this was under the career bureaucrats. There were political appointees like our recent assistant administrator, Atul Gawande, who did a good job of streamlining bureaucracy. That’s where there are important programs that I’m concerned are going to be thrown out with a bureaucracy that has grown over six decades without enough accountability,” Cohen said. “There have been efforts to reform it, not successful. So I hope that this can be an act of creative destruction, which is a good thing, instead of just total destruction, which would be the concern of overreach.”
Despite Democrats’ criticism over the week, some lawmakers, like Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, have said that he would like to see the Trump administration and DOGE take down the Internal Revenue Service next.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/Fox News/”Jesse Watters Primetime”)
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