the committee chairman, james comer also requested testimony from the mayors of new york, boston and the american people an explanation for city policies that violate federal law and jeopardize public safety >> dana: we are are paying attention. thank you, mike. >> real innovation is not clean and tidy. it is nt necessarily disruptive and messy but that's exactly what washington needs right now. >> our federal government is being fleeced by a handful of billionaires at the expense of everyday people. they are unelected billionaire oligarch. >> i am sickened by the way that the left is categorizing and lying about what elon musk is doing in the federal government. >> john: that was a hearing right sizing the government as democrats fight elon mucke's effort to slash government spending. let's bring in chairman james comer. quite a hearing you had yesterday. democrats seem to be gunning for mr. musk. >> they are gunning for mr. musk. it is ironic they keep referring to elon musk as an unelected bureaucrat or whatever their terminology they are using. they stood silent over the past fou

. >> ainsley: we talked about this last week how james comer on house oversight he sent letters to all those four cities. he said you need to come to congress. we need to have a hearing. that has been set up. it's the first week of march. so in a few more weeks. well, here is the mayor of chicago. you have been to chicago so many times, covering the crime there this is what the mayor brandon johnson said. >> i'm standing with the full force of government today, to demonstrate that chicago is a welcoming city. regardless of who is in the white house, chicago is a city that opens its arms to people from around the globe. >> lawrence: something got to be done. >> brian: president obama pam bondi is on thejob for an ha sanctuary city which i got the list in front of me, you are going to be denied federal funding. they are going to sue back because we have been down this road before. hopefully the trump team went to school on what happened and maybe the public sentiment is more -- i know the public sentiment is more towards trump on this. >> lawrence: something has to be done about the obst

here is the chairman, james comer. >> president trump promised he would eliminate washington waste andunchecked federal bureaucracy. he is delivering on his promise made to the american people. over the past few days we've heard wild claims from democrats that we're, quote, at the beginning of a dictatorship, end quote. and we're in a constitutional crisis. this kind of theatrical rhetoric is what the people rejected in november. >> harris: part of the cuts will include musk's plan to restructure usaid. they argue it is a slush fund for. democrats aren't focused on the economy of it all. >> all of those axises are cut off. we might see somebody get killed. >> we have to fight this in the courts. we have to fight this in the congress. we have to fight this in the streets. >> what is happening right now is a hostile takeover of the u.s. government. >> shut down the city. [cheers and applause] we are all war. >> tell you right now people are going to die in very large numbers around the world who are expecting the united states to live up to our promise eaves to get them medicine and help

james comer sent a letter to mayor adams and also the mayor of boston, chicago, and denver.them to come to congress and talk to them about sanctuary cities and how they hinder law enforcement. they aren't able to go in and arrest these criminals. and the mayor, our mayor here in new york as you were talking to kristi noem, lawrence, he has said he is willing to work with federal agencies. he knows that there is a problem at the border. >> lawrence: he has a city council though that they are being resistant. the mayor is talking about maybe, perhaps, using executive orders to be able to get some of this stuff done. just so they know. when they are resisting, they are empowering the criminal cartel. i see them on the run now guys, their money, their infrastructure has been totally disseminated within this first two weeks. and so they are regrowng right now. but you want to get them while they are on their heels. and what they are doing is regroup and go to different destinations they're empowering the people that cross this border. >> steve: we had kristi noem on the couch. ac

the mayors of several sanctuary cities including chicago and new york will be hauled in front of james comer's congressional committee. comer accuses them of prioritizing illegal criminals over the american people. on the show today, 40,000 federal workers have accepted trump's buyout offer. trump wants more. the deadline to sign up, midnight if tonight. it is thursday, january 6, 2025, "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ ♪ 'cuz i hear a voice and it calls me -- stuart: okay. mercy me. don't know that that. before we get started -- lauren: a major correction. stuart: it is february the 6th -- >> did you say january? it just slipped out. [laughter] i've got to think about -- >> you can never go back. [laughter] stuart: let's get on with it. president trump attending the national prayer breakfast many washington this morning. watch this. >> if we could ever come together, it would be unbelievable. may not happen but it should. maybe it will. from the if earliest days of our republic, faith in god has alls a been the ultimate source of strength that beats in the hearts of our nation. we hav

but the big problem is that chairman james comer and the oversight committee is the ultimate trump lapdogso we're not going to have any hearings of substance. so we had to go physically and pull up to that building and say, let us in. and obviously they delayed and delayed and delayed and didn't let us in at all. but we're we're not stopping there. we're going to continue these actions. we're going to continue to do what we need to do to protect our constituents. chris, this wasn't a stunt. this wasn't a thing to get social media. this was real work of oversight. and i am terrified of the potential that elon musk is doing behind those closed doors. and the fact that absolutely nobody has the information on what he's doing, and he answers to nobody. we should all be very concerned about it. whether you're a democrat or a republican. >> yeah. just in the interest of scrupulous precision, i just want to be clear that we don't have any evidence for reporting he's stealing money. we just don't know what is happening back there. and also that he has we. >> have no evidence, but we don't know at

congressman gerry connolly, the ranking member of the house oversight committee, is asking chairman james comer to invite elon musk to the committee's hearing on rightsizing government this wednesday. and congressional democrats held a fiery press conference today outside of the usaid building right here in washington, d.c. >> we are. going to fight in. >> every way. >> we can in the courts, in public opinion, with the bully pulpit in the halls of congress and here at aid itself. >> this is all a smokescreen. a shell game. in order. >> to turn. >> this government over. to a handful of unelected billionaires and corporate interests. and we are not going to let them do that. >> just. >> like elon. >> musk did not create. us aid. >> he doesn't have the power to. destroy it. >> and who's. >> going to stop him? we are. >> we're going to stop him. >> okay? that's the fire. that's the life i'm talking about. >> now. >> after that. >> press conference, members even tried to get inside the shuttered usaid building. and i'm going to talk to one of those. >> members. >> senator chris. >> van hollen, in ju

james comer, a top republican on house oversight, the top republican, was asked about how he thought doge was operating and this is what he had to say. >> elon musk is being very transparent. he's tweeting multiple times a day about what what thoughts he's having different aspects of the federal government. he's he's examining and things like that. and i think as long as he's being being transparent, i think that, you know, that eliminates a big part of what the oversight committee is about. >> yeah. we don't know what these guys are doing over there. right? we don't know what they're copying. we don't know what they're seeing. there are questions about whether or not they're actually looking into the code that's happening. we don't know who they're going to decide to pay who. they're not going to decide to pay. apparently, they're just closed. the u.s. trade development agency, ustr, which is something that we go into developing countries and we find opportunities for american companies to go and do work and make money. and they're shutting that down because doge wants to stop its a

joining us right now is house oversight committee chairman james comer of kentucky. at you're going to be listening to a lot. what are you kind of going into these hearings thinking ahead of time, just in terms of what needs to happen at the government level? >> well, we can't. continue to have $2 trillion deficits. that's unsustainable. and we have a president now that's serious about trying to get unnecessary spending under control. it's easy to increase. >> spending in this. >> building here in the capitol. but when you talk about making cuts and people start. losing their minds, i think we have a population. and a society that is addicted. >> to government. >> spending, but unfortunately, we're going to have to get that under control. and that's what we're going to talk about today. we're going to talk about a lot of the stuff that doge and elon musk have been proposing. we're going to talk about a lot of the executive orders that president trump has been signing. and i'm sure it will be a very lively discussion, because, to be quite honest with you, the republica