Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) lashed out Wednesday at Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — telling him at one point to “shut up” after a tense exchange over inflation.
Waters suggested that President Trump’s tariffs were inflationary and that immigration enforcement was tanking housing affordability during a House Financial Services Committee hearing about the state of the US economy.
“Will you be the voice of reason in the administration and urge Trump to stop waging a war on American consumers?” the Los Angeles Democrat pleaded. “Yes or no?”
“You seem confused as to the definition of inflation,” Bessent began before Waters interrupted him to re-ask the question.
The two then began talking over each other, with Bessent noting that the Biden administration “let in between 10 and 20 million immigrants” who “took up the housing stock of working Americans.”
“Can you shut him up?” Waters butted in, asking committee chairman French Hill (R-Ark.) to restore order.
“Can you maintain some level of dignity?” Bessent replied.
Waters then complained to Hill that Bessent “took up my time” with his responses.
Bessent denied having authored a letter calling tariffs inflationary and pointed to federal data disputing that import duties raise prices.
“According to the San Francisco Federal Reserve, with 150 years of data, tariffs do not cause inflation,” he told Waters.
The House Financial Services Committee had convened to question the Treasury secretary about an annual report put out by the Financial Stability Oversight Council.
That included discussions about “identifying and mitigating financial risks” like the ones that caused the failures of three large banks — First Republic Bank, Signature Bank, and Silicon Valley Bank — under the Biden administration in 2023.
Later in the hearing, Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY) also erupted at the Treasury secretary for ignoring the Trump family’s apparent conflicts of interest.
“Stop covering for the president! Stop being his flunky!” shouted the Queens Democrat, pointing a finger at Bessent.
Meeks claimed the “improper influence” stemmed from the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial receiving foreign investments from the United Arab Emirates.
“This is no longer just about a shady crypto deal or a possible gift when a foreign-linked investor is putting hundreds of millions of dollars into a company controlled by the president’s family and at the same time, this president is conducting foreign policy with that country,” he told Bessent.
“It creates a national security concern,” he added. “I just want to know whether you will commit today to pause and heighten … scrutiny of any bank charter or license … connected to the World Liberty Financial until all of these conflicts of interest and foreign-influence reviews are completed and shared with the United States Congress.”
Bessent fired back that the oversight Meeks requested was being conducted by “an independent entity,” before taking a swipe at the congressman’s move to “lobby Hugo Chavez” on behalf of donors in a 2006 trip to Venezuela while serving in Congress.
