Who?
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) — Ranking Member, Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee*
*chaired by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)
LISTEN: Laslo & Stansbury
Ask a Pol asks:
How has it been for you sitting across from MTG on the DOGE subcommittee?
Key Stansbury:
“Uneventful. Well, I say that…” Rep. Melanie Stansbury exclusively tells Ask a Pol. “She's actually fairly collegial to me. When I first decided to take this on, I went and met with her in her office with the committee staff, and it was southern hospitality. She was very nice, very warm and we agreed that we’d tried to do bipartisan stuff, and then it devolved into madness very quickly.”
Did Elon Musk walk off with your private data?
“I think he stole that data, and I think he's gonna use it for his own fundraising,” Stansbury says.
American’s private data?
“Yes. Why wouldn't he? This is the thing, it's all indefensible. They're drunk on power right now,” Stansbury says. “But this is one of their cardinal sins because it will come back and bite them, and it's going to bite them hard because they overplayed their hand.”
ICYMI — Laslo first sold this interview to Raw Story
Caught our ear:
“The thing to me that makes Elon Musk such a poser, he comes out of the tech bro world and those guys, what do they do? They figure out how to monetize a customer experience through, mostly, an app interface, right?” Stansbury tells us.
“I think if he had stuck to user interfaces and improving government websites, he probably could have built some cool stuff. But he did not. Instead, he broke everything, and then became the most unpopular modern political figure and got his feelings hurt.”
Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM), edited for length and clarity.
TRANSCRIPT: Rep. Melanie Stansbury (5-21-2025)
SCENE: In the middle of the night — around 2am or so — as House Republicans worked furiously, if as quietly as possible, to pass President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” before jetting off for Congress’ weeklong Memorial Day recess, Ask a Pol’s Matt Laslo ran into Rep. Melanie Stansbury recording a social media video on the steps of the US Capitol.
As a gentle rain misted upon them, the two proceeded to have a thoughtful conversation about Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (aka MTG), Elon Musk, American’s private data and streamlining government, generally.
Matt Laslo: How has it been for you sitting across from MTG on the DOGE subcommittee?
Melanie Stansbury: “Uneventful. Well, I say that … She's actually fairly collegial to me. When I first decided to take this on, I went and met with her in her office with the committee staff, and it was southern hospitality. She was very nice, very warm and we agreed that we’d tried to do bipartisan stuff, and then it devolved into madness very quickly.
“We had a crazy hearing at the start of May where they were attacking trans athletes, and she was just so out of control. Later — that was the week she announced she wasn't running for Senate — I knew something was wrong with her that day, because she was acting so stressed out.”
ML: Interesting.
ICYMI — Ask a Pol covers Congress from every perspective
MS: “Even halfway through that hearing, I tried to slip her some Cheez-Its because I was like, ‘Maybe she's hangry?’ I'm like, ‘I don't know why she's acting this way.’
“The thing that's interesting about her, too, that I noticed, is that the media is so obsessed with her, it's like she could sneeze and it'd be front page news. Anything she does generates news.”
ML: Sometimes I let her walk past without interviewing her, just so she feels what it’s like to not have the spotlight on her.
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