Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent got into a rhetorical tussle during a congressional hearing Wednesday, and the White House weighed in on the incident.
Waters and Bessent were debating whether illegal immigration had a deleterious effect on the housing crisis when the Democrat called on the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee to “shut him up” after her time expired.
‘Mr. Chair, will you let him know that when I ask you for time … can you shut him up?’
Waters challenged Bessent on his previous comments linking tariffs to inflation, and he countered by citing studies that said tariffs were not inflationary. She went on to the housing crisis and blamed tariffs on lumber and steel for some of the housing price increases.
Bessent tried to argue with her, but she interrupted him and continued.
“Trump single-handedly made housing more expensive, and once again, you know it. As Axios has reported, you were planning to lift tariffs on housing production goods,” she said.
She went on to criticize Trump’s policies on immigration and argued that deportations had hurt the housing construction industry by deporting their source of labor.
“I ask you, Secretary Bessent, will you be the voice of reason in the administration and urge Trump to stop waging a war on American consumers and on housing affordability?” she asked.
When Bessent launched into an explanation, she interrupted numerous times.
“Will you be the voice?” she shouted. “Will you be the voice?”
He tried to talk over her, but she persisted in interrupting.
“Reclaiming my time!” she interrupted. “Mr. Chair, will you let him know that when I ask you for time … can you shut him up?”
“Can you maintain some level of dignity?” Bessent fired back.
“Gentlelady’s time has expired,” the chairman said.
“No, my time has not expired!” she protested.
Waters accused the chairman of protecting Bessent before they moved on.
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The White House Rapid Response account fired back at Waters on social media, calling her “rude and low IQ” and quoting from Bessent’s testimony.
“Adding 10 to 20 million new people demanding housing, Congresswoman, is what caused a great deal of housing inflation for working Americans — so you and the Biden administration should be ashamed,” he said.
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