Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spent much of Wednesday morning sniping with Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee. It was uglier than not.
Bessent apparently came armed with opposition research on the panel’s Democratic members and frequently interrupted their questions — so much so that Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) had to remind Bessent multiple times that the question time belonged to lawmakers.
Even by the standards of 2026, the politics felt nasty. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said at one point that the tenor of the hearing was “embarrassing.”
