XPost: alt.government.employees, alt.society.liberalism, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14369665/USAID-boss-samantha- powers-interview-colbert-trump-musk.html

https://images.cnbctv18.com/uploads/2025/02/elon-doge-2025-02- 75901b38ba4e35f811796125b7173254-780x438.jpg

The former boss of the doomed United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has defended its record after it was branded a
'criminal organization' by Elon Musk.

Samantha Powers' entire department was dismantled by the DOGE as part of
Musk's attempts to trim the fat on federal government spending.

USAID was created during the cold war to provide humanitarian relief
overseas and has been overseen by Powers since 2021.

During that time, she said the agency has been, 'on the frontline of some
of the hardest challenges our country faces'.

However, her opponents have accused the department of wasteful spending.
The White House claims millions was given to advance diversity in Serbia,
a trans opera in Colombia and an LGBT comic in Peru among other causes.

The president's envoy Richard Grenell called for an investigation into
Powers who he accused of using tax dollars to fund, 'crazy, radical
programs and far left activists'.

But in a Tuesday interview with The Late Show's Stephen Colbert, she
outlined some of the life-saving humanitarian work USAID was involved in.

'The Core Fact is programs that were running, that people were depending
on in
some cases for life saving medicine, like medicine if you have HIV that
keeps you alive quite literally,' Powers explained.

'Or if you're in Sudan and you have a child who's wasting away because of malnutrition a miracle paste a peanut paste that USAID provides brings
that kid back from the brink of death, all of those programs are
shuttered.'

She also warned the agency's shutdown will have a destabilizing effect on geopolitics, as Russia and China seek to plug the gaps caused by the
withdrawal in funding in exchange for influence in foreign countries.

'When the US pulls away, it's not clear what those other countries will do there'll be a collective action problem,' Powers added.

'But the countries that stand most to benefit are authoritarian nations,
they are nations that thrive on corruption and thrive on chaos.

'You see tweets this week from Russian officials celebrating the potential demise of USAID, you see the officials from the People's Republic of China
who are now confronting a serious issue in developing countries because
those countries have gone into such debt to work with China that they now
want to look elsewhere.'

However, Powers herself is not free from controversy. She was among those calling of the 'unmasking' of Michael Flynn during the final days of the
Obama administration.

Flynn was a former national security adviser convicted of lying to the FBI about his calls with the Russian ambassador.

He was pardoned by Trump, who initially fired him over the incident, after
the president claimed the prosecution proved that the Obama administration
had 'spied' on his 2016 election campaign.

Powers also faced a public revolt from her staff over her support for
Israel's bombing campaign on Gaza in the wake of October 7.


--
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.

The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and
eradicated.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)