There’s a pesky fact for congressional Democrats crying foul about Elon Musk’s hostile takeover of the U.S. government: Many of them took campaign cash from a Musk company PAC.

The SpaceX political action committee doled out more than half a million dollars to Democrats during the last campaign cycle — including thousands that flowed to Democrats after Musk became a party pariah by campaigning for Donald Trump.

SpaceX revenues have been buoyed by more than $15 billion in government contracts since its 2002 founding. The company made headlines this week when, amid Musk’s attempts to purge federal employees and starve numerous agencies to death, SpaceX received another $39 million contract from NASA.

Like many Beltway players, the company gives out cash on a bipartisan basis through an employee-funded PAC.

Over the last two years, its spending began tilting toward Republicans, and the PAC’s payouts paled in comparison to the $290 million that Musk himself spent on the election. Nevertheless, the SpaceX donations could open Democrats to charges of hypocrisy.

“We took that in good faith.”

House and Senate Democrats have been nearly unanimous in condemning Musk’s rampage through the federal government, filing bills, and firing off fiery tweets. On the question of how to approach the donations from SpaceX, however, they seem to be less united. Some appeared poised to keep the cash. Others gave a more ambiguous response when asked whether they would return the money, or had any concerns about it now.

“It’s something we have to think about,” said Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., who took in $7,000 from the PAC in the last cycle.

“We took that in good faith, before we realized that Elon Musk was going to come into our country, an unelected bureaucrat,” said Rosen, whose leadership PAC received $3,000 from the SpaceX PAC at the end of........

© The Intercept