Treasury Nominee Scott Bessent Leaves Dem Senator Stammering: 'You Gave It to Me in Your Office, And I Did Read It'
When it comes to Senate bloviating, Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse is among the worst of a bad company.
A political party that has lost its hold on the White House and its Senate majority has been reduced to what amounts to catcalling from the sidelines as the second Trump administration forms, trying to sabotage the cabinet-confirmation process with personal attacks, media-smear campaigns, and belligerence.
None of those efforts have borne the kind of fruit Democrats would hope, and on Thursday, at a confirmation hearing for Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent, Whitehouse attempted to put sneering condescension into the mix — and came up empty again.
During the course of questioning Bessent about potential dangers of a bust in the real-estate market, like the kind that led to the economic crash of 2008, Whitehouse lectured the nominee to get someone on his “team” to look at a report from the Senate Budget Committee about home insurance figures around the country.
Then he got more direct.
“And I would actually ask you, personally, to read this Economist magazine article. I don’t think it’s complicated …” he said, before Bessent interrupted.
“Senator Whitehouse, you gave it to me in your office, and I did read it,” he said smiling. “I will point out to my children behind me, doing your homework’s important.”
Whitehouse was clearly caught off guard by the response and tried to cover it by being churlish.
“Thank you for doing that,” he said. “I think you’re the first person in the nominations here who’s actually done the reading that has been proposed …”
At that point, he stammered, obviously floundering, before finding his footing again with an Ernest Hemingway reference and, of course, “climate change.”
Check out the exchange here:
But the real point had already been made. Whitehouse wasn’t out to actually ask a question; he was there to lecture a man who’d been nominated by a president-elect Democrats despise.
Whitehouse wasn’t interested in making a good faith attempt to find out if the nominee in line to lead the Treasury Department was actually competent to the task.
He wanted to launch a political surprise attack — but his opponent had come prepared.
This isn’t really new ground for Whitehouse.
The Rhode Island senator has already embarrassed himself trying to attack Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi — and getting humiliated.
He’s been part of the leftist posse out to lynch Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. And naturally, he’s been in the pack baying for blood when it comes to Justice Samuel Alito. Both justices are as firmly ensconced on the court as ever and, given that a Republican is in the White House for the next four years, are likely to be succeeded by justices who share their conservative views.
In short, he’s been in the thick of the increasingly impotent progressive Democratic agenda — if not the forefront. And as a senator whose committee memberships include influential posts on Judiciary and Budget, he’s in a powerful position, even for a member of the minority party.
Senate Democrats have made it clear that they’re going to bring this brand of “Resistance 2025” to Trump’s nominees. But they’re failing to derail them.
They’re failing in the case of Pete Hegseth’s bid to become secretary of Defense.
They’re failing with Bondi at the Justice Department.
And, as Whitehouse’s ill-conceived attack on Bessent showed, they’re failing there, too.
With Republicans holding a 53-vote majority in the Senate, it will take a lot more than Democrats have been able to put out so far to put a major block in the Trump agenda when it comes to his cabinet.
And bloviating the way Whitehouse was, against a nominee who understands the importance of doing the “homework,” isn’t going to change the results of the 2024 election or even slow down the Trump momentum.
It’s only going to make the bad company Whitehouse keeps look even worse.
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