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>\nThe 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,” 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” 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,” 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” after she told American financial institutions not to finance the Trump administration’s massive support package for Argentina.<\/p>\n
Bessent’s combativeness is, in part, a sign of the times, said David Lublin, chair of the Department of Government at American University’s 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
“It’s 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’s 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’s 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<\/div>\n
\n
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