We should not let this pass. A moment which reveals so much about Mike Lawler, as well as the sad state of our politics (and our media).The moment came during an April 10 CNN Town Hall featuring Lawler and 3 other members of Congress.

Kaitlan Collins posed this question: “Today Elon Musk told the President’s Cabinet … that instead of $1T in savings they expect to get about $150B in savings. What would you say to Americans or your constituents who might be worried that he gave them false hope of what he could achieve?”

Lawler was first up. He emphasized that Musk was conducting a “turbocharged forensic audit … which hasn’t been done in years.”

He also mentions his own important work conducting oversight on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. See my 3-part Case Study in Lawler series to learn how feckless that oversight has been.

Here we have another case study in Lawler, in much more condensed form. This occurred during Representative Jahana Hayes’ response to the same question about Musk. Please watch, it’s only 1 minute long.

Trying to contain himself, itching his knee, interrupting repeatedly so that he can ask this insightful question: “Can you identify one thing of waste that they have found that you actually agree with?” Hayes had already said that “if he has found all of this waste, fraud and abuse, we don’t want that either.” But Lawler just has to get in this schoolboy question to suggest that Hayes doesn’t care about waste, just because she chooses to spotlight Musk as a one-man wrecking ball with no transparency or accountability.

Hayes immediately answered Lawler’s question: “I don’t know if it was verified or not but they said that people took advantage of the unemployment system.”

The conversation devolved from there as Lawler reclaimed the stage and attempted to set us all straight, launching with his favorite condescending “Respectfully ….” I encourage you to watch the full exchange, but Lawler hammered the point that we would never know about the fraud without the “turbocharged audit” charade of Musk. He lectured Hayes: “You’re talking about uncovering the fraud. What exactly has been uncovered under the Biden administration?”

Shall we ask the Associated Press? On April 15 they reported: “DOGE trumpets unemployment fraud that the government already found years ago.” Read the article if you want facts.

Mike Lawler’s cynical approach to politics is that you don’t want or have time for the facts. So he’ll just make it up and hope he creates the sound bite that will seal your vote. And please his maker, Musk.

As we struggle on to the next turbocharged headlines.