Marko Elez, a 25-year-old engineer, was doxxed as a member of DOGE in a Wired article earlier this week. A subsequent investigation by a reporter from the Wall Street Journal linked Elez to a burner account on X with a history of inflammatory posts, which had been deleted before he joined DOGE He resigned shortly thereafter.

His resignation, apparently confirmed to have been pressured after Musk asked the public if he should be reinstated, was quickly decried by some on the right as a success of cancel culture.

“If you’re bowing to leftist cancellation strategies in the first few weeks @DOGE is never going to make it,” The Blaze host Auron MacIntyre said in a post. “Hire him back.”

After significant backlash, Musk posted a poll on X asking whether he should be hired back, garnering nearly 80% of over 380,000 votes in favor.

About two hours after the poll was posted, Vance quoted it, giving his position on the matter.

“I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life. We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back. If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that,” he said.

When asked about the matter during a meeting with the Japanese prime minister, Trump said he agreed with Vance.

Quoting Vance’s post, Musk announced that Elez would be reinstated.

“He will be brought back. To err is human, to forgive divine,” he said.

Vance’s input was widely celebrated on the right and widely decried on the left. The vice president responded to the criticism, while quoting a post of Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) asking if he would be asking for an apology.

“For the sake of both of our kids? Grow up. Racist trolls on the internet, while offensive, don’t threaten my kids. You know what does? A culture that denies grace to people who make mistakes. A culture that encourages congressmen to act like whiny children,” Vance responded.

Vance decried those who took issue with his intervention as engaging in “emotional blackmail.”

“My kids, god willing, will be risk takers. They won’t think constantly about whether a flippant comment or a wrong viewpoint will follow them around for the rest of their lives. They will tell stupid jokes. They will develop views that they later think are wrong or even gross. I made mistakes as a kid, and thank God I grew up in a culture that encouraged me to grow and learn and feel remorse when I screwed up and offer grace when others did,” he said.

The Wall Street Journal released several of the comments posted on what it alleged was Belez’s burner account, most of them occurring between July and September of last year. It was deleted before he joined DOGE.

“Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” the account posted in July, a reference to a popular meme.

In a September post, he said, “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” and responded to a post noting the prevalence of Indians in Silicon Valley with, “Normalize Indian hate.”

In another post on the War in Gaza, the account noted, “I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth.”