Scott Bessent Grilled About DOGE Employees By Glenn Ivey: 'That's Not What I Asked'

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At today's House Appropriations Committee hearing, Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) questioned Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Transcript

00:00Question.

00:07I appreciate you being here today, Mr. Secretary.

00:12Want to ask you a few questions about Doge and the role it's playing at Treasury.

00:19You came into office, I guess you were sworn in on the 27th, was it?

00:26You were confirmed by the Senate on the 27th?

00:29Is that about right?

00:3128th.

00:3128th?

00:32Okay.

00:32And then you started working at Treasury immediately after that?

00:37All right.

00:37And Doge began working there as well with respect to the payment systems?

00:44They, two people, two individuals from Doge who were actually Treasury employees were on site.

00:52Okay.

00:53And I believe you were approached by the highest ranking career official at Treasury, David

01:02Lebrick.

01:03Am I pronouncing his name correctly?

01:05I believe it's Lebrick.

01:06Lebrick.

01:07Okay.

01:08What was the nature of that conversation?

01:10I assume this was about the Doge issue, but tell me briefly what that conversation was

01:16about.

01:16Well, that conversation was about a discussion of the payment system.

01:24And when I go back to what I didn't know, I think I walked in the office around 3 p.m.

01:30And I think he and I were having a conversation at 4.30, and the, he, uh, I got asked for the

01:40short version.

01:40Oh, no, no, no.

01:41Okay.

01:41But, you know, I, I will tell you that when we were talking about the tasks, that, that

01:47it was people like this individual who were hitting send on the payments.

01:52So, you know, I've come to find out that he's part of the-

01:56Okay, I apologize.

01:57I'll have to get that later from you.

01:58Yep.

01:58Feel free to send in substance of the discussion in a letter.

02:02But I, I guess what I was going to ask was, you just mentioned there were two people

02:05who were working with respect to Doge at the time.

02:08Yes, sir.

02:08And, um, Mark Elez was one of those?

02:14I'm not sure.

02:15Not sure?

02:17You're not familiar with that name?

02:20I, I don't recall that name.

02:22I, I interviewed Tom Krause and personally recommended him to work at Treasury.

02:27Okay.

02:27Well, Mr. Elez, um, had worked at Mr. Musk's SpaceX company.

02:34Um, and the Wall Street Journal.

02:39Issued a story, I think around February 7th, that talked about statements that Mr.

02:46Elez had made, um, in the prior year.

02:49One was, um, you could not pay me to marry outside my ethnicity.

02:55Another was that he wanted to normalize Indian hate.

02:58A third was, just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.

03:04And another was, I just want a eugenic immigration policy.

03:08Is that too much to ask?

03:10This man resigned, uh, shortly after that article was published.

03:14But you haven't, you don't recall him being there?

03:17Congressman, I did not recall that individual's name, but that, that individual was terminated.

03:22He was terminated.

03:23Okay.

03:24Um, well, I appreciate that.

03:25Although it appears that he then later turned up.

03:28That he was rehired, I guess.

03:32And that he's continuing.

03:33Not by Treasury, sir.

03:34Okay.

03:34But he was continuing to do work for Doge.

03:38But in this instance, it's HHS and three other, um, departments.

03:44You have no idea.

03:45I didn't follow his career.

03:46Okay.

03:47Well, you, you didn't catch J.D. Vance saying that he, uh, didn't think he should be terminated.

03:52Did you miss that too?

03:53I, I don't recall that.

03:54All right.

03:54Do you recall Mr. Trump saying that he, uh, should have a second chance?

03:59Uh, I don't recall that.

04:00No.

04:01Okay.

04:01And, uh, do you, you recall Mr. Musk saying he should be given a second chance as well?

04:07No, sir.

04:08All right.

04:08Well, I guess the main question too here is what exactly was the vetting practice that

04:14you had in place before you brought on these two people and gave them access to the payment

04:19system, which is $6 trillion?

04:22Uh, well, sir, they, they did not have access to the payment system, or perhaps we have a

04:26different definition of access.

04:28Uh, they, they only had read, they had read only abilities and it was for, they were there

04:37for tech support, tech support to look at the payment system, the ERP system, just like

04:46any private enterprise.

04:49Is this an individual that you would have brought on even in that capacity if you'd known that

04:53he'd made these statements prior to him becoming part of that team?

04:57Uh, Congressman, that I, I think it's very difficult to monitor everyone's social media.

05:02That's not what I asked.

05:03If you knew that he had made these statements, would you have brought him on in the capacity

05:08that he had at the Department of Treasury?

05:10Uh, I, I think the Office of Personal Management would have flagged that.

05:14You would, would you have brought him on?

05:16Uh, sir, I, again, the, uh, I, I'm not going to speculate.

05:21The chair now recognizes the gentleman from New York, Mr. Lolota, for his five minutes.

05:29Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

05:30Good morning, Mr. Secretary.

05:31Good to be with you this morning, sir.

05:32Uh, I'd like to use my time to talk about taxes and trade.

05:36As Head of Treasury, you advise the President on taxes and trade, sir.

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