Mnuchin dismisses heated exchange with Maxine Waters as ‘silly’

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday dismissed a confrontation with House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) from earlier in the week, calling it “silly” and “unnecessary.”

Asked if he felt he was treated disrespectfully in the hearing, Mnuchin told CNBC that he was “not going to go there” but called it an “unnecessary ending.”

The two had argued in a Tuesday hearing over whether Mnuchin would stay overtime for questions or return at a future date.{mosads}

“I was prepared to come back and spend as much time as they wanted, and I had been there for over three hours and fifteen minutes, which was longer than any secretary had been in a very long period of time,” Mnuchin told CNBC.

Mnuchin concluded his exchange with Waters was “a little bit of political theater, as you saw.”

“It was really an unnecessary ending,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on his testimony to the House Financial Services Committee Tuesday. “… A little bit of political theater as you saw.” https://t.co/1KHvNESG13 pic.twitter.com/Zkh2DETpt7

— CNBC (@CNBC) April 10, 2019

Mnuchin also said the primary purpose of his appearance before the committee had been to discuss the most recent National Advisory Council on International Monetary and Financial Policies (NAC) report.

“I don’t think I got one question on the NAC report,” he said. 

At the Tuesday hearing, after Waters told Mnuchin he was free to leave, Mnuchin told her to “take the gavel and bang it” to dismiss the hearing. Waters told Mnuchin not to “instruct me as to how I am to conduct this committee.”

Earlier in the hearing, Mnuchin had offered to cancel a meeting to remain at the hearing but said he would “not be back here” before the committee in that case.