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