Anti-Musk Activists Protest Outside Kean’s Office
BERNARDSVILLE – They stood in a narrow hallway outside the office of Rep. Thomas H. Kean Jr.
Some held signs. “Deport (F)Elon Musk” read one.
A man from Clinton in Hunterdon County – Lee – said he hates Donald Trump with a passion and Kean — well, he’s just as bad.
Soon, the 50 or so people congregating in the hall were let in two and three at a time. Once inside they gave their views on Musk, on Trump, and the state of the country in general – both verbally and in writing, some said.
Kean, the CD-7 congressman, was not there. It was left to a handful of staffers to deal with the sudden appearance of protesters.
One staff member said there would be “no comment” for the press.
The pilgrimage to Kean’s district office was the culmination of a protest rally outside the borough train station organized by the state’s Working Families Party and other groups on the left. About 150 people showed up, a pretty good turnout on a very cold Tuesday afternoon.
The point was clearcut.
Trump and Elon Musk are destroying the federal government through unconstitutional means.
This will hurt average people and lead – maybe – to an authoritarian regime.
Republicans like Kean, who at times calls himself a moderate, are complicit by their silence.
“Kean is a coward, Kean is a coward,” was one of the first chants of the day,
And then … there was a brief interruption.
Two vehicles adorned with Trump flags drove in and through the train station parking lot beeping their horns. Then they drove through a second time.
A crowd briefly gathered around one of the vehicles, but then dispersed. The cars did not appear again.
One of the speakers was Amalia Duarte, the Morris County Democratic chair.
She said her parents moved here from the Dominican Republic to get away from a dictatorship. She said she would do all she can to prevent a dictatorship from developing in the United States.
After a while, the group left the train station and walked a short distance to Kean’s office on Claremont Road.
They stood outside and chanted. Among other things:
“Elon Musk has got to go
Hey hey, ho ho.”
Then, about 50 queued inside.
Two local police officers soon arrived. but left when they realized all was in order.
But then, a man presumably associated with the building’s management ordered the protesters to leave the hallway. They did not.
But the crowd did make sure they were not blocking access to any of the other offices in the building.
Today’s display in CD-7 gives credence to the idea that the district remains competitive.
Kean won the seat in 2020, beating incumbent Tom Malinowski, and won reelection last November against Sue Altman.
What fuels animosity toward Kean by political opponents is his penchant for avoiding unscripted dialogue with the press and public.
So far, however, that has been a winning strategy.
Always nice to see people exercising their 1st Amendment rights to hold elected officials accountable, keep it up.
Sad to see that some misguided people don’t like seeing billions of taxpayer dollars being ferreted out of the federal government. Go DOGE! It’s been long overdue!
So proud of these protesters standing up for those of us who believe in democracy!
From the looks of the age demographic of demonstrators, it looks like a lot of them are stay-at-home government workers stealing taxpayers’ monies. Maybe they should GET A REAL JOB AND SEE HOW THE REST OF US LIVE!!!!!
It’s those that scream the loudest about Musk’s actual factual investigations proving waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayers’ monies, that have something major to hide, like not wanting to go back to the office to work, getting thousands, millions and tens of millions through fraudulent agencies like USAID, etc.
Everyone needs to take screen shots of the faces of these protesters and send them to DOGE and Trump’s DOJ to see if they’re the ones not working but getting paid on the taxpayers’ dime, or getting monies they aren’t entitled to from fake agencies.
So far we have had no actual accounting of waste found in the government program – only firing of needed government workers who have families to feed – oh yes and many dead people still in the files for social security but that have not received any payment since their deaths . You may not mind an unelected billionaire having access to your private information but many of us do
intersting to see how many people approve of all the waste,fraud and abuse the unelected party (the deep state) indulges in.
Bunch of losers.
Just because people work from home does not mean they are not working. We did not vote for Musk. He is not an elected official. He has no business taking our information nor getting his hands in the treasury. You like that ? Wait until the funds they cut affect your health and your pocket because they will. You think Musk and Trump care about working people ? Good
luck, they don’t. These a holes pay 0 dollars in taxes each year and want to take more from us. You take the tidbits of lies that they GOP wants you to believe and you take that it at truth. But if they are stealing democracy right out from under you and by the way, how’re the price of eggs working for you now.
So far, Trump, his spokespeople, and Musk have merely
claimed waste, inefficiencies and misuse of services within the federal government but have delivered no proof. All the firings and layoffs…I’ll bet Trump will be filling vacancies with friends and people who have pledged loyalty.
In a short period of time, this man has devalued thousands of human beings who worked for the government and has invented scurrilous stories about the genesis of the war in Ukraine and sucked up to Putin. It’s surreal to realize the dangers of this administration. But I believe sensible people…hopefully legislators too…will tire soon of this malicious immaturity and greed for power and rein Trump in. I remember thinking, as he left office the last time, how badly he failed at improving the U.S. because he was so fixated on blaming, bragging and maligning others.
It’s WAY PAST the time we had someone reviewing the tremendous amounts of taxpayer money dolled out by the government. The DOGE team is, in my opinion, doing a great job in bringing to light all the money being spent without any accountability whatsoever. Is this overspending of the taxpayers money what these protestors are in favor of keeping? Maybe they don’t pay enough in taxes themselves or are on the receiving end of it?