Hawk Episodes Around July 1, 2026
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25:34Now PlayingUSAID & ELON MUSK: World's First Trillionaire Responsible for Millions of Deaths
Jul 1, 2026·8K views
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25:34Now PlayingUSAID & ELON MUSK: World's First Trillionaire Responsible for Millions of Deaths
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In his first weekend in office, Elon Musk tweeted that he had put USAID into the wood chipper. In the twenty years ending in 2024, USAID saved approximately 91 million lives, including more than 30 million children under five, spending between $35 and $61 billion per year, less than one percent of the federal budget. By the end of 2025, credible estimates placed deaths attributable to the USAID shutdown at over 760,000. The Lancet now projects between 14 and 15 million preventable deaths by 2030, with more than 4.5 million of those being children under the age of five.
When Musk posted on Twitter that not a single child had died from the USAID cuts, multiple journalists responded directly. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who had already been reporting in affected countries since March 2025, named children and adults by name: Jane Sunday, 15 months old, who died of malnutrition in Kenya; a one-year-old who died of cholera in South Sudan after a mobile health team lost its grant; five-year-old Suza Kinyaba in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who died after a shipment of anti-malaria drugs was left stranded in a warehouse; eleven-year-old Paciencia in Mozambique, who died after her HIV caseworker was laid off and replacement medication was incorrectly administered. Kristof challenged Musk to come on a reporting trip and see the children whose lives are at stake.
Atul Gawande, former USAID global health chief, cited independent analysis from Boston University epidemiologist Brooke Nichols estimating 700,000 deaths already attributable to the cuts. Hawk also plays clips of Bill Gates discussing the consequences and Ro Khanna, who has challenged Musk to a live televised debate and been threatened with a defamation lawsuit in response. Hawk closes by arguing this should be a central campaign issue in the 2026 midterms and that Musk, who was never a government employee, will not be able to claim executive privilege when Democrats subpoena him.
#ElonMusk #USAID #NicholasKristof #AtulGawande #RoKhanna #BillGates #DOGE #Lancet #DemocraticRepublicOfCongo #SouthSudan #Liberia #SierraLeone #Mozambique #Kenya #ForeignAid #GlobalHealth #Midterms2026 #Accountability #TrumpAdministration #Hawk
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