'Hurting people to help themselves': Dem senator disses DOGE's CFPB cuts

CFPB has provided over $21 billion in consumer relief, according to the agency's latest data from Dec. 3. 2024. Kaine accused Musk of targeting the CFPB with DOGE cuts for his own gain. 

In an interview with Fox News Digital following his meeting with former CFPB employees, Kaine said the CFPB saved "tens of thousands of Virginians" from unfair or abusive financial practices. 

"These folks are doing great work," Kaine said. "This is an agency that returned $21 billion to consumers who got ripped off. I know the Virginia statistics. It's tens of thousands of Virginians who got relief because of the work that these folks did."

Virginia has the second-highest number of federal civilian employees in the United States, according to data from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Kaine has been a vocal opponent of DOGE's federal workforce cuts, holding town hall meetings to address concerns from his constituents. 

Kaine said Musk and DOGE are "hurting people to help themselves" by promoting a government that yields a "huge giveaway to Elon Musk and people just like him."

Regarding the ongoing federal workforce firings, Kaine said: "They ain't using a hatchet. They're using a chainsaw." Kaine said Trump is relying on executive actions to dismantle government agencies because even congressional Republicans wouldn't "go along with this stuff that he's doing."

"He is not confident he could get even Republican majorities to go along with this stuff. He's going to do what he can, because even these Republican majorities that seem completely cowed and submissive, with no backbone and no willingness to exercise a vocal cord that they have, he doesn't think they will go along with this stuff that he's doing," Kaine said. 

The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment by the deadline of this article. 

Joe Valenti, a former CFPB term worker who met with Kaine on Friday, told Fox News Digital he was locked out of the CFPB office last month, received a stop-work order and then a termination letter with no severance. 

Valenti said consumer finance laws are "not necessarily being enforced" by halting CFPB operations. 

"The federal government is abdicating from its role in protecting working people from financial harms and that affects low-income constituents, like the people who I served at CFPB. It affects service members, affects veterans, seniors. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act is one of the laws that CFPB would oversee and enforce. That goes back to World War I. If you don't have a cop at the beat at all, what's going on in the markets and what does it mean for people who are affected by market abuses?" Valenti said. 

"We virtually shut down the out-of-control CFPB, escorting radical-left bureaucrats out of the building and locking the doors behind them. What they were doing was so terrible. Where they were spending the money was so terrible," Trump said. 

Trump confirmed to reporters in the Oval Office on Feb. 10 his plan to have the agency "totally eliminated." Trump said the CFPB was a "waste" used "to destroy some very good people" and it was a "very important thing to get rid of." 

Vought ordered CFPB employees to halt agency operations unless otherwise approved on Feb. 10. Seventy-three newly hired "probationary employees" and 70 to 100 "term employees" were subsequently fired while around 200 contracts were canceled, according to the lawsuit and media reports. 

Three CFPB leaders were placed on administrative leave in early February, Fox News Digital confirmed. An agency spokesperson said CFPB's chief legal officer, Mark Paoletta, placed Lorelei Salas, the CFPB's supervision director, and Eric Halperin, the agency's enforcement chief, and Zixta Martinez, the agency's deputy director, on administrative leave.