A staff member for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, who was in charge of flagging grants for “DEI,” struggled to define the term during a lawsuit deposition.
Lambert here: Here is a partial transcript, cleaned up:
[0:00] How do you interpret DEI?
[0:1111] [FOX] There was the EO [Executive Order] explicitly laid out the details. [0:1616] I don’t remember it off the top of my head.
[0:1717] It’s okay. I’m asking for your understanding of it.
[0:1919] Yeah, my understanding was exactly what was written in the EO.
[0:2222] Okay. So, can you—
I don’t remember what was in the EO.
[0:2525] So, right now, do you have an understanding of what DEI is?
Yeah.
[0:2929] Okay. Okay. So, what’s your understanding as you sit here today in this deposition?
Um, [0:3535] well, it was exactly what was written in the EO. And so, anytime that we would look at a grant through the lens of [0:4343] complying with an executive order, we would just refer back to the EO…
Right.
[0:4646] … And assess if this grant had relation to it.
[0:5050] Okay. But I guess I’m stepping back from your uh methodology strictly and terminating the grants. Do you have an [0:5858] understanding as you sit here today of what DEI means?
Yeah.
[1:011] Okay. So, what’s your understanding of what it means?
[1:041] Well, I— it is exactly what was written in the EO. Okay. So I don’t have the EO in front of me, [1:121] but that was we would always reference back to the EO and make sure that this grant was in compliance with the EO.
[1:181] I understand that. Okay. But I’m not asking necessarily about what was in the EO.
Mhm.
I’m asking very specifically about your present understanding of DEI.
[1:301] Mhm.
Do you have a present understanding of DEI?
Yeah.
Can you explain what that present understanding is?
[1:361] Um well, it is just easier for me to be referencing back to the EO.
Are you refusing to answer the question?
I’m not refusing to answer the question. [1:431] I just feel that referencing back to the verbatim executive order was the best way for us to capture all of the [1:521] DEI language and so I think giving a a high-level overview of what I could relay [2:002] as DEI is not going to do justice what was written in the EO.
And that’s okay. We can look at the EO as well. I’m asking you for— I mean this [2:082] is a deposition. I’m asking you questions. You’re under oath and you’re required to answer them. So what what is your understanding of what DEI means?
Well I— I think I would say again that I— I would go back to the EO to make sure I’m capturing enough. I don’t— I don’t feel comfortable saying a high level [2:242] overview because it is such a big bucket and there’s just a lot of pieces of the puzzle.
Lambert here: They’re not sending their best. Or maybe they are!
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