Well this was something you just don’t see very often on Capitol Hill.
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin was before Maxine Waters’ committee today when tensions got heated near the end of the hearing. At issue is the Waters refusal to let Mnuchin officially leave the hearing to get to an important appointment on time. They had apparently agreed that he would be there for 3 hours and 15 minutes and then he could leave. Mnuchin clearly felt disrespected and made that clear to Waters, who obviously didn’t care one iota.
As the clip opens, Mnuchin informed Waters that he wasn’t able to have a press conference after the hearing because he had a foreign dignitary waiting in his office at 5:30 and he needed to be there.
Waters told Mnuchin that she thought he indicated he would remain until 5:30, not 5:15, and asked if he’d remain another 15 minutes.
Mnuchin explained that he’s already going to be late and explained that he respected the committee and and would gladly come back again.
Waters then proceed to try and negotiate him coming back two more times in the month of May, which exasperated Mnuchin. He explained he’d already been there for 3 hours and 15 minutes and couldn’t believe she was trying to negotiate with him.
And it went downhill from there:
Waters told Mnuchin he could leave the hearing anytime he wanted, but clearly wasn’t going to end the hearing for him to do so appropriately.
Mnuchin responded that the Republicans never treated the Treasury Secretary this way and if this is how she wanted to treat him, he would reconsider his offer to return voluntarily.
Waters didn’t budge, so Mnuchin responded that if she wanted to keep him from leaving so he could attend his meeting, he’d cancel his meeting and stay but that he would never come back to her committee voluntarily.
The argument continues and Waters persists in telling him he’s free to leave anytime he wants.
Mnuchin then agreed and suggested she bang the gavel and dismiss the hearing.
Waters tersely responded that he should not instruct her on how to handle her hearing.
What you don’t see is that after the clip stops, Waters proceeds to continue with the hearing. Mnuchin, on the advice of his counsel, explains that he’s under no obligation to remain and will voluntarily stay for another 10 minutes even though it will make him 20 minutes late for his meeting. But he makes clear that he’s withdrawing his offer to come back to her hearing in the future.