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Utah senator on DOGE and federal workers

WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Senator John Curtis (R-UT) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about DOGE and the email sent to federal employees to reply by end of day Monday with five bullet points of what they accomplished last week.

When asked if that's how they should be treated, Senator Curtis said in part, "I don't believe so...If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it's like, please put a dose of compassion in this. These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages...It's a false narrative to say we have to cut and you have to be cruel to do it as well. We can do both."

Earlier in the interview, Brennan and Curtis talked about President Donald Trump to dismiss General Martin Dempsey as Chair of the Joint Chiefs, as well as five other senior military officials, on Friday, with General Dempsey issuing a statement saying "trust should be based on leadership, integrity and performance to relieve a senior officer, not for a lack of one of those qualities, but for a real or perceived disagreement in their beliefs harmfully politicizes the military profession."

When asked if he's concerned if that's what's happening, Curtis said:

"I think we have to stop and look what happened, really, last November. And one of my colleagues described it this way. It was a stop the car moment. Those of us who have had young kids and have been on family vacations know what a stop the car moment is. It's...'Kids, you're so disruptive, we're stopping the car.' And I think in many ways, the American people said, 'Stop the car. We want dramatic change. We're unhappy with what's happening at the border. We're unhappy with the economy. We're unhappy with so many things. You keep promising that you're going to cut spending and you don't. Stop the car.' So, people really shouldn't be surprised that this is a stop the car moment we don't get to go to Disneyland until we figure this out. And I think that's what people are seeing right now in Washington."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Curtis, click here.

Article Topic Follows: National Politics

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Dillon Fuhrman

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