Vice President JD Vance on Friday morning called for the reinstatement of a Department of Government Efficiency staff member who had resigned after being linked to racist posts he made on X under a pseudonym.
Mr. Vance’s declaration on X came after The Wall Street Journal linked a pseudonymous account on the social platform with Marko Elez, a former SpaceX and X employee who had joined Elon Musk’s cost-cutting effort that is scrutinizing government spending. Mr. Elez resigned on Thursday, after The Journal reported that he had written posts last year declaring, “I was racist before it was cool” and “normalize Indian hate.”
“I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life,” wrote Mr. Vance, whose wife, Usha Vance, is the daughter of Indian immigrants. “We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back.”
Mr. Elez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Musk also appeared to favor Mr. Elez’s reinstatement, and led a campaign calling for the author of the Journal story to be fired for publishing private information. The Journal did not publish private information and simply linked Mr. Elez’s pseudonymous posts to his real name.
On X, Mr. Musk posed a question to his more than 215 million followers: “Bring back @DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym?”
The answer, from 78 percent of the more than 385,000 users who cast votes in the poll, was a resounding yes.
Whether the White House will agree to bring back Mr. Elez remains to be seen. But Mr. Musk’s past use of polls on his social media platform shows how serious he is about abiding by the results.
In late 2022, Mr. Musk reinstated President Trump’s account on X after his followers said in a poll that he should. That same year, he agreed to step down as the company’s chief executive — the outcome of yet another poll.
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