MSNBC's Rachel Maddow unloads as DOGE 'geniuses' try to 'un-fire' nuke experts — but can't
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow tore into the Trump administration over recent reports that his team fired — then "un-fired" — workers who oversee the country's nuclear programs.
Maddow told viewers late Monday the National Nuclear Security Administration maintains, refurbishes and oversees the safety of the nation's thousands of nuclear weapons. The agency develops nuclear propulsion systems for submarines and helps ensure "terrorists don't get their hands on a nuclear weapon," noted Maddow, as well as preventing nuclear tech isn't "stolen and sold on the black market."
"And Trump is firing them. Firing hundreds of them," she said, noting the agency only has about 2,000 workers.
ALSO READ: 'Gotta be kidding': Jim Jordan scrambles as he's confronted over Musk 'double standard'
About 300 received termination notices last week.
"Isn't there anything about the name of that agency that might suggest to you that maybe this isn't the best place to make cuts?" she asked, sarcastically. "What about National Nuclear Security Administration bugs you and makes you think, that one is dispensable?"
Maddow then laid into Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a task force charged with slashing trillions out of the federal deficit, and which has received fierce criticism over its sweeping cuts to numerous agencies — including some that regulate industries Musk is directly involved in.
"By Friday, the geniuses in the Trump administration had maybe Googled what this agency does or something? Maybe heard from a few members of Congress?" chided Maddow.
After sending out the termination notices, DOGE staffers tried to reverse course — "they tried to un-fire the hundreds of people from the National Nuclear Security Administration."
However, the firings were effective immediately. When the DOGE staffers tried to reach the workers affected, they found them unreachable — not having their new contact information.
"They had no way to get in touch with all those people they just fired to say, 'Oops! Sorry! Will you please come back?'" Maddow railed. "This is the level of expertise and efficiency we're dealing with, with this new administration."
Maddow continued laying into the president for allowing his top campaign donor — Musk donated about a quarter of a billion dollars last year — to send "basically random, unvetted young people with no experience and no subject matter expertise at all" into the agency that secures nuclear weapons.
"Has it occurred to maybe any of you to resign?" she said, shaking her head in disgust, later adding: "People have resigned for much smaller sins."