Bessent Clashes With Waters Over Personal Contact, DOGE

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent clashes with Representative Maxine Waters after she took issue with a lack of personal contact with him. Speaking during testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Bessent also says "there is no such thing as a DOGE employee."

Scott Bessent’s first exchange at a hearing with the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee unfolded in unorthodox fashion Wednesday, as Maxine Waters took issue with a lack of personal contact with the Treasury secretary.

“This is the first time we’ve met — is that correct?” Waters said at the hearing. Bessent responded, “No ma’am — we actually met one New Year’s Eve in the Bahamas.”

Waters, who chaired the committee when the Democrats held the majority, said, “He didn’t make an impression.” The Treasury chief then quipped, “You were much better at the electric slide than I was.”

The exchange followed an opening statement by Waters in which she predicted, “You are about to go down in history as the man who oversaw one of the most significant economic downfalls in modern history.” She blasted the Trump administration over the tariff hikes, and took issue in her questions with Bessent’s allowing Elon Musk’s DOGE personnel to enter the Treasury.

Bessent said “there is no such thing as a DOGE employee,” and individuals Waters referred to were working for the Treasury. “To my knowledge, Musk has never been in the Treasury building,” he said.

Waters said she’d sent five letters “to ask about what was going on under your leadership” at the Treasury, and only got “cursory replies from your staff.” Bessent didn’t directly respond to Waters’s objection.

Later in the hearing, Representative Gregory Meeks of New York asked Bessent a question aimed at comparing the US economy under Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden. He asked Bessent who the president was in 2024, and Bessent said, “one believes President Biden,” drawing laughs from some of the Republicans in the room and scoffs from Democrats.

Meeks then asked Bessent if he believes in the US Constitution. “I have and I do, sir,” Bessent said.

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