Laura Barron-Lopez:
To get a sense of the chaos and the conflicting message, we have a timeline here.
So, first, Elon Musk posted and the OPM e-mail went out on Saturday, essentially saying, respond to this e-mail or you will be terminated. Then some agency head said, comply. Others, like the FBI, State Department and DHS, said you can ignore it.
Then, President Trump said comply or risk being fired or semi-fired. And then, on Monday evening, Elon Musk again tweeted saying, which you highlighted earlier, that they had a second chance to comply or be terminated.
So, adding to the confusion of all of this, the H.R. — the Office of Personnel Management, which is the government’s H.R., also put out conflicting messages, first telling people to comply, to not — that they didn’t have to comply, that it was voluntary, then saying they had to.
And within the last hour, President Donald Trump added to the confusion.
Donald Trump, President of the United States: Well, it’s somewhat voluntary. But it’s also, if you don’t answer, I guess you get fired.
(Crosstalk)