{"id":450014,"date":"2026-02-05T06:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T06:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/450014\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T06:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T06:42:09","slug":"treasury-secretary-bessents-testimony-descends-into-shouting-matches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/450014\/","title":{"rendered":"Treasury Secretary Bessent\u2019s testimony descends into shouting matches"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A hearing about oversight of the U.S. financial system<\/a> devolved into insults several times Wednesday as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent clashed with Democratic lawmakers over fiscal policy, the business dealings of the Trump family and other issues.<\/p>\n

Appearances by treasury secretaries on Capitol Hill are more typically known for staid exchanges over economic policy than for political theater, but Wednesday\u2019s hearing of the House Financial Services Committee hearing featured several fiery exchanges between the Republican Cabinet member and Democrats, with Bessent even lobbing insults back to the lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Bessent called Rep. Sylvia Garcia \u201cconfused\u201d when she questioned how undocumented immigrants could affect housing affordability across the country, prompting the Texas Democrat to snap back, \u201cDon\u2019t be demeaning to me, alright?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bessent later mocked a question from Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., about shuttered investigations into cryptocurrency firms<\/a>. Lynch expressed frustration with Bessent\u2019s interruptions, saying, \u201cMister Chairman, the answers have to be responsive if we are going to have a serious hearing.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bessent replied, \u201cWell, the questions have to be serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a back-and-forth over whether tariffs cause inflation or one-time price increases for consumers, California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters asked committee leaders to intervene with Bessent: \u201cCan someone shut him up?\u201d<\/p>\n

And in a fiery exchange with Rep. Gregory Meeks over the Abu Dhabi royal family\u2019s investment into the Trump family\u2019s World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency firm<\/a> last year, the New York Democrat dropped an F-bomb as he shouted at Bessent: \u201cStop covering for the president! Stop being a flunky!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the fireworks.<\/p>\n

Bessent\u2019s performance was \u201cnot a role you typically see a treasury secretary play,\u201d said Graham Steele, a former assistant secretary for financial institutions under Biden-era Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. The department has traditionally \u201cbeen removed from some of the day-to-day, hand-to-hand political combat,\u201d Steele said in an interview.<\/p>\n

He recalled his former boss having tense exchanges over climate change and policy issues with Republican lawmakers during committee hearings, but the exchanges were not personal, he said, noting treasury secretaries have to strike a \u201cdelicate balance\u201d of working with the White House while safeguarding the \u201ceconomic stature\u201d of the country internationally.<\/p>\n

In recent months, Bessent has ratcheted up his insults when it comes to Democratic leaders. <\/p>\n

He has called California Gov. Gavin Newsom \u201ceconomically illiterate,\u201d compared him to the fictional serial killer Patrick Bateman, and called him \u201ca brontosaurus with a brain the size of a walnut.\u201d He has on several occasions called Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren an \u201cAmerican Peronist\u201d after she told American financial institutions not to finance the Trump administration\u2019s massive support package for Argentina.<\/p>\n

Bessent\u2019s combativeness is, in part, a sign of the times, said David Lublin, chair of the Department of Government at American University\u2019s School of Public Affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump has shown he likes belligerence and he likes nominees and others who defend him vociferously,\u201d Lublin told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say that this is unusual for this political environment. What used to be the normal modicum of respect for Congress has frayed to the point of vanishing,\u201d Lublin said.<\/p>\n

What was unusual, in Lublin\u2019s view, was for Bessent to reveal his thoughts on monetary policy \u2014 normally the purview of the Federal Reserve \u2014 and his insistence that Trump has the right to interfere with the decision-making of the central bank. \u201cYou have a cabinet secretary defending the president\u2019s efforts to erode institutions,\u201d Lublin said.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Bessent will get another opportunity to spar with lawmakers. He is scheduled to appear before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on the same topic: the annual report by the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which Bessent leads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A hearing about oversight of the U.S. financial system devolved into insults several times Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[6361,23,28,2356,12,109,11733,2013,793,3138,962,211191,211193,198775,2001,211195,3,211194,111,4666,200479,211190,211192,8638,21,19,22,20,25,24,800],"class_list":["post-450014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-america","tag-business","tag-california","tag-donald-trump","tag-economic-policy","tag-elizabeth-warren","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-general-news","tag-government-and-politics","tag-government-policy","tag-graham-steele","tag-gregory-meeks","tag-janet-yellen","tag-massachusetts","tag-maxine-waters","tag-news","tag-patrick-bateman","tag-politics","tag-scott-bessent","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-stephen-lynch","tag-sylvia-garcia","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}