Former Democrat Rep. Dean Phillips, who challenged former President Joe Biden in the party’s primary in 2024, said he would like to see the Democrats work with President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to “eliminate waste and fraud.”

“I got to tell you, I was really embarrassed for my Democratic colleagues, Mr. Garcia and others, because the fact of the matter is this is not playing well around the country. People want the government to work better. They believe that Mr. Musk, one of the most extraordinary entrepreneurs in human history, who does not fail at just about anything, they want him to do this, most Americans. They wanted Trump. They elected him,” he said to CNN anchor Laura Coates.

“And I just would hope that my Democratic colleagues might change the strategy and perhaps actually work with Republicans to identify waste and fraud and actually attack that because then they would have some more credibility as it relates to the constitutional issues and the ones that are actually going to hurt human beings, including federal employees who are now being used as pawns,” the former representative said.

“So — but that is how most Americans feel. But Democrats are not projecting that, and I’m deeply concerned about leadership right now,” Phillips added.

The anchor made the case that Democrats only want to have oversight and questioned the former representative on whether or not too much control given to Musk gives him “pause.”

“I’m conflicted because the way this is being — look, if I could wave my magic wand, I would also identify ways to reduce waste in the federal government. When I ran for president, Laura, that was one of my propositions, to engage one of the world’s foremost consulting firms to literally look at the entire federal budget and make thoughtful recommendations to Congress about how we could actually become more efficient, more effective, and that was a proposition of mine,” he said.

“Unfortunately, Democrats are only focused on one thing right now, Mr. Musk. The fact of the matter, he’s quite popular. He has the largest platform in human history which is, of course, Twitter/X. And I think we’re missing the boat as Democrats. And all I’m saying is that sometimes, it’s better to join them and actually play a role in how the strategy works rather than so pathetically, frankly, try to combat something that clearly is a steamroller, and Democrats are being steamrolled. I’m deeply concerned about that,” he said.