Republican Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and U.S. Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) spoke over each other repeatedly as Krishnamoorthi tried to pin the Governor down and invite her to become one of the rarest birds to be sighted in Washington D.C. these days: a Republican who will publicly disagree with anything President Donald Trump or his DOGE assistant Elon Musk says or posts online. Reynolds declined Krishnamoorthi’s tacit offer.
Krishnamoorthi, a Harvard Law School graduate, sounded prosecutorial in trying to get Reynolds to answer whether she believed that an organization called Lutheran Family Services was, in fact, a “terrorist organization.”
[NOTE: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S., is headquartered in Chicago — adjacent to Krishnamoorthi’s district — and has approximately 2.8 million members.]
Krishnamoorthi: Governor, you don’t believe that the Lutheran Church or Lutheran family services is a money laundering operation… yes or no question
Reynolds: I can’t speak to that pic.twitter.com/xLLGVdD2Zk
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 5, 2025
In his heated exchange with Reynolds, Krishnamoorthi first presented a social media post which he characterized as “something very disturbing that Musk just recently tweeted out.”
The Congressman then describes Musk sharing a post from retired United States Army lieutenant general and convicted felon Michael Flynn “likening Lutheran Family Services to, quote, a money laundering operation.”
Sharing Flynn’s post, Musk added: “The DOGE team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments.”
Now it’s the “Lutheran” faith (this use of “religion” as a money laundering operation must end):
Lutheran Family Services and affiliated organizations receive massive amounts of taxpayer dollars, and the numbers speak for themselves. These funds, total BILLIONS of American… pic.twitter.com/IaTG2uNXRB
— General Mike Flynn (@GenFlynn) February 2, 2025
[NOTE: The DOGE purge has also attacked Catholic orgs who receive large donations — Catholic Relief Services got $476 million in 2024 — from USAID, while Catholic convert and U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Catholic bishops might be concerned more about their “bottom line” than their charitable work in protesting Musk’s shutdowns.]
As Krishnamoorthi questions her, Reynolds repeatedly equivocates, saying she is responsible to Iowans and that Donald Trump is responsible to Americans who elected him.
Noting that “Des Moines, Iowa, is home to the largest Lutheran congregation in the United States,” Krishnamoorthi presses the Governor on the “terrorist” label hung on Lutheran Family Services by Musk and Flynn.
Reynolds won’t deny the claim, saying “I can’t speak to that.” She instead backs the general tenor of Musk’s USAID investigations, saying “every program should be looked at and that’s what we’re trying to do.”