Protesters began unfurling banners and chanting "PEPFAR saves lives. Restore AIDS funding now" and continued to do so as they were being escorted out.

Mast didn't skip a beat, and had just a few short, sweet, simple, and to-the-point words for the protesters:

"I guess these guys don't watch the news. They didn't realize that PEPFAR was one of the many programs that did prove to be life-saving, so the funding was restored. Somebody better give them a link to, I don't know, maybe Fox News or something like that."

PEPFAR, which was started in 2003, stands for "the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief," and DOGE leader Elon Musk indicated on the Twitter/X platform Wednesday that its funding was mostly preserved:

Elon Musk @elonmusk
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Replying to @iAnonPatriot
Funding for Ebola prevention and the parts of PEPFAR that appeared to be useful were not cut
6:03 AM · Feb 12, 2025