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  "path": "/post/206159/trump-treasury-secretary-caught-blatant-lie-congress",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-04T20:19:04.000Z",
  "site": "https://newrepublic.com",
  "tags": [
    "Breaking News",
    "Scott Bessent",
    "Congress",
    "House of Representatives",
    "Maxine Waters",
    "Department of the Treasury",
    "Inflation",
    "United States",
    "tariffs",
    "Republicans",
    "Republican Party",
    "Donald Trump",
    "pic.twitter.com/eJdKPzy8hN",
    "February 4, 2026",
    "January 2024 letter",
    "highlighted",
    "stated",
    "commented",
    "pic.twitter.com/bUXWHrsPLK",
    "February 4, 2026",
    "@atrupar",
    "@atrupar"
  ],
  "textContent": "Democratic Representative Maxine Waters caught Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a clear and obvious lie during a congressional hearing.\n\n“Did you write a letter to investors raising concerns about the impact of tariffs, writing that ‘tariffs are inflationary?’ Did you say that at that time, yes or no?” Waters asked.\n\n“Uh, no,” Bessent replied.\n\n“OK … we have a _New York Times_ article that agrees that you said that,” Waters said.\n\n“Great, _New York Time_ s,” Bessent said, smiling.\n\n> WATERS: Did you write a letter to investors raising concerns about the impact of tariffs, writing that 'tariffs are inflationary'?\n>\n> BESSENT: Uh .... no\n>\n> WATERS: We have a New York Times article that agrees you said that\n>\n> BESSENT: Great. New York Times. pic.twitter.com/eJdKPzy8hN\n>\n> — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 4, 2026\n\nWaters continued:\n\n“Last summer, when you testified before a Senate committee, you said, and I quote, ‘There is no inflation. Tariffs are not being passed on to consumers.’ You were quite definitive, and even claimed that critics had ‘tariff derangement syndrome,’” she said. “Well, those comments are at odds with the statement you made to investors that tariffs are inflationary.... Are tariffs inflationary? Yes or no?”\n\n“According to the San Francisco Federal Reserve … tariffs do not cause inflation,” Bessent said.\n\nBessent may have very well perjured himself, given the letter he claimed doesn’t exist certainly does. In that January 2024 letter, which Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller first highlighted, Bessent wrote: “Tariffs are inflationary and would strengthen the dollar--hardly a good starting point for a US industrial renaissance.” He then goes on to argue that Trump will weaken the dollar to “make US manufacturing competitive.”\n\nBessent attacked ___The New York Times_ to distract from Waters’s question, as if nothing reported about him in the paper could possibly be true. When asked to clarify, Bessent stated that if he even said that tariffs were inflationary, he was wrong.\n\nThis is all part of an effort to shield the average American from the harsh reality that they, not other countries, are shouldering most of the economic burdens of Trump’s tariff wars.\n\n“Not only did he lie, but his advice was horrible on every level,” Representative Sean Casten commented. “Under Trump and Bessent they have imposed tariffs, overseen a collapse in the US dollar and delivered a collapse in US manufacturing jobs.”\n\n> CASTEN: I want to read you a quote -- 'tariffs are inflationary and would strengthen the dollar.' Do you recognize it?\n>\n> BESSENT: You're referring to a letter a wrote. Tariffs could be inflationary\n>\n> CASTEN: No no. It says 'tariffs are inflationary.' Do you want to correct the… pic.twitter.com/bUXWHrsPLK\n>\n> — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 4, 2026",
  "title": "Trump’s Treasury Secretary Caught in Blatant Lie to Congress"
}