Politics
Jared Polis: DOGE is ‘tearing down the old without necessarily having a more efficient way of doing it’
Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is all for “making government more efficient” — just not the way the federal government is going about it.
That was just one of Polis’ pushbacks against the new Trump administration during Blue Light News’s Governors Summit on Thursday. Democratic governors across the country have signaled an eagerness to partner with President Donald Trump on certain issues, though they have not held back from criticizing the president in his first weeks back at the White House.
Polis — who at times has provided contrarian views to his fellow Democrats, like when he voiced support for now-Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — indicated some common ground with the administration’s efforts to target “waste at federal agencies,” and suggested that states can learn from efforts being made at the federal level to do so.
But the current moves from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency are “not necessarily the best way to get … a better outcome for less money,” he argued in an interview with Blue Light News’s Eugene Daniels, proposing that “a better way to do it would be more zero-based budgeting.”
“What is it that we need to accomplish with this agency? A, do we even need to accomplish it anymore, or is it counterproductive? B, if we do need to accomplish it: pretend it doesn’t exist — how do you create the most efficient possible system to do that for the least money, and to do it the best way from the ground up? And then kind of juxtapose and replace the old with the new,” he said. “The way that they seem to be doing it is just sort of tearing down the old without necessarily having a more efficient way of doing it.”
Polis, who took the helm as chair of the bipartisan National Governors Association last year, touted repealing more than 200 old state executive orders and looking to remove “unnecessary rules and regulations” in Colorado. He said that federal efforts to make “compliance easier in certain areas” would benefit states’ pushes to make their governments more efficient as well.
“We literally have employees that just sit there to comply with federal requirements, so I’d love to find a way where if they make the federal requirements easier, we can then downsize the state people that are simply filing federal paperwork as their entire jobs,” he said.
Polis also shared thoughts on other areas in which the Trump administration could be doing things differently, including on tariffs, which he called a “self-inflicted wound that would raise prices, increase inflation and destroy jobs.”
The governor is often outspoken — especially online, with his notable social media presence. (“I had to learn what commercial media was,” he said on Thursday. “I had no idea what the networks were or anything, because that’s where I live, online.”) In November, he shared his support on X for Kennedy as Trump’s HHS pick, which drew some blowback from some other Democrats.
Polis said on Thursday that he does not agree with Kennedy on “some of the nutty stuff he believes,” and clarified that he is “obviously pro-vaccine.” But he said he is “excited because he’s going to shake up HHS.”
“I hope he’s not too controlled by Republican special interests, but they need to let him go to really focus on the health of the American people,” Polis said. “I take him at his word. Obviously, I would oppose if he in any way interferes with people’s ability to protect themselves from deadly diseases. I would be among the first to criticize that.”
But despite bolstering his national presence over the years, the former member of Congress is mum on his plans for 2028. At last year’s POLITICO’s Governors Summit, Polis, who is term-limited in 2026, didn’t rule out a presidential bid. When asked about potential presidential aspirations on Thursday, he said he is “really focused on the job that I have.”
“I don’t have any plans to even think about that,” he said. When asked whether he was taking the possibility of running for president off the table, Polis responded that it “wasn’t even on the table.”
Nexstar Media Group will continue to preempt “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on its ABC affiliates, the company said Tuesday, effectively pulling the late-night show from dozens of local stations as the comedian prepares to make his return to the airwaves.
The company noted it would “monitor” the show as it returns to ABC, but said its stations would “focus on continuing to produce local news and other programming relevant to their respective markets.” The move makes Nexstar the second broadcasting company to preempt the show, following suit after the Sinclair Broadcasting Group announced Monday it would not air the talk program on its nearly 40 ABC affiliates.
“We made a decision last week to preempt ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ following what ABC referred to as Mr. Kimmel’s ‘ill-timed and insensitive’ comments at a critical time in our national discourse,” the company wrote in a statement Tuesday. “We stand by that decision pending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve.”
Nexstar, the country’s largest local broadcasting group, owns roughly 30 ABC affiliates across cities like Nashville, Tenn., New Orleans and Salt Lake City. Sinclair also owns dozens of affiliates, including the ABC station serving Washington and its suburbs.
ABC parent Disney announced Monday it would resume airing “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” after deciding to suspend the show last week to “avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country.”
The show’s suspension sparked a flood of criticism from lawmakers and party leaders across the aisle, citing concerns about censorship — particularly after Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr threatened to look into affiliates because of the comedian’s comments.
Nexstar is currently seeking a merger with Tegna, which requires FCC approval.
“We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday,” Disney’s statement on Monday read.
House Democrats are going on the offense with tariffs and shutdown politics in swing districts, dropping TV ads against 10 vulnerable Republicans as Congress barrels toward an October government shutdown.
House Majority Forward, a nonprofit aligned with House Democratic leadership, is spending $3 million on broadcast TV and digital ads attacking Republicans on cost-of-living increases and cuts to Medicaid. Details of Tuesday’s ad buy were shared first with Blue Light News.
“They promised to lower prices, but you’re not imagining it — Republican tariffs are making everything more expensive,” one of the ad’s narrator says, over flashing images of grocery items. “Juan Ciscomani voted to let Trump make tariffs even worse and voted to make healthcare even more expensive. Now, Republicans in Congress are threatening to shut down the government, causing economic chaos.”
Ciscomani, a Republican member first elected in 2022, holds an Arizona House seat that Donald Trump also narrowly won last year.
The ads come as Congress faces a government shutdown stalemate, after the Senate rejected dueling short-term government funding proposals from both parties on Friday.
They also preview Democrats’ attack lines against Republicans ahead of the midterms. Public polling finds most Americans disapprove of Trump’s tariff policies. But Republicans maintain an edge over Democrats when voters are asked who they trust more on the economy, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll released over the weekend.
In addition to Ciscomani, the ads go after Reps. David Valadao of California, Gabe Evans of Colorado, Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn of Iowa, Tom Barrett of Michigan, Mike Lawler of New York, Rob Bresnahan and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin.
The ad airing against Van Orden features a Wisconsin-based influencer, Kate Duffy. Styled after a social media post, it will air vertically on broadcast TV, a first for the group.
Disney announced “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will resume airing on Tuesday, ending Kimmel’s short-lived suspension following comments the host made on his show about the killing of Charlie Kirk.
In a statement released Monday, Disney said it suspended Kimmel last week “to avoid inflaming a tense situation.” The company received intense pressure from Trump allies, including Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, over Kimmel’s comments.
“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” Disney said in the statement. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive.”
“We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday,” the statement continued.
Kimmel’s suspension set off a wave of criticism from leaders in both parties who were concerned about political censorship.
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