Federal Workers in Limestone Mine Bash Elon Musk’s Claims About How They Handle Documents: ‘Not True…There’s No Elevator’

Dean: “As Elon Musk and DOGE bulldoze their way through the government, he is taking aim at how federal retirements are processed by hand in an old limestone mine in Pennsylvania. Now, that’s true, but workers there say, while the system is far from perfect, some of Musk’s claims are not accurate. CNN’s Gabe Cohen has the story.”

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COHEN (voice-over): “Beneath the rolling hills of Western Pennsylvania — “

COHEN: “It really is just off some rural road.”

COHEN (voice-over): “ — an old limestone mine house is one of the most remote and secure government offices.”

COHEN: “You can see the entrance. It looks like that’s about as far as you can get before you have to go through security.”

COHEN (voice-over): “Nearly 700 civil servants here process almost every retirement from the federal workforce.”

COHEN: “We’re here in Butler County because of recent comments that Elon Musk made about this facility and about the people who work here, comments that have really rocked this rural area.”

Musk: “There’s a limestone mine where we store all the retirement paperwork.”

COHEN (voice-over): “From the Oval Office last week, Musk criticized the operation as one that epitomizes government inefficiency.”

Musk: “It’s like a time warp. And the elevator breaks down sometimes, and then nobody can retire. You can do practically anything else and you would add to the goods and services of the United States in a more useful way.”

BONGINO: “Is this the freaking Flintstones?”

COHEN (voice-over): “Those comments got a lot of pickup.”

WATTERS: “Musk wants to rescue these government gremlins from working underground. (...) Does President Trump promise we’re going to shut this cave down?”
LEAVITT: “Yes, he does.”

COHEN (voice-over): “The federal workers here are on edge. They got a memo warning them not to talk to reporters.”

COHEN: “Are you ready?”
UNKNOWN: “Yep.”
COHEN: “Okay. How are you feeling?”
UNKNOWN: “Good. Better.”

COHEN (voice-over): And yet five of them and a former supervisor sat down with us, because they say many of Musk’s claims were false. We’re masking their face and changing their voice because they’re scared of retaliation.”

UNKNOWN: “Everybody has kind of been silenced at this point. We all need these jobs.”
COHEN: “Tell me about that elevator.”

Musk: “And the elevator breaks down sometimes, and then nobody can retire.”

UNKNOWN: “There’s no elevator. No elevator at all. You walk down into the mine, it looks like any other office building.”

Musk: “The most numbers of people that could retire possibly in a month is 10,000.”

UNKNOWN: “I’m not sure where that number came from.”
COHEN: “There is no limit?”
UNKNOWN: “There is no limit.”

Musk: “All the retirement paperwork is manual.”

UNKNOWN: “That is not true. It’s not.”

COHEN (voice-over): “Built in the 1950s, transformed from a mine, it was renovated over the years into a temperature and climate-controlled facility. It’s owned by a company called Iron Mountain, and private companies also store vulnerable items like film reels and photographs. But it’s not just Musk who criticizes the processing of retirement claims. For years, this office has been criticized for processing too slowly, over-reliance on paper, and insufficient staffing. Some of the workers we spoke to agree the system needs updating. But completely shutting this facility down would devastate Butler County, where the federal government is the biggest employer. It’s also Trump country. He got nearly two-thirds of the vote here, and the mine is just 20 miles from the fairgrounds where he was nearly assassinated.”

COHEN: “Did you support President Trump?”
McBRIDE: “I did support President Trump, yes. I think he’s the president of the people. That’s the message this area has.”

COHEN (voice-over): “Jason McBride is a supervisor in this tiny town.”