Gay Treasury Secretary Bessent testified at a Senate hearing today, exuding smugness and using evasive, dishonest responses to defend the Trump administration’s corrupt policies.

The contentious hearing in front of the Senate’s Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee was ostensibly to discuss Bessent’s oversight of the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s annual report, which assesses U.S. financial stability, emerging threats, and regulatory developments. However, many of the questions focused on how Trump’s policies have harmed everyday American taxpayers.

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During an early exchange, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) noted that the cost of groceries has risen over the last year, and added, “It’s not just groceries. The numbers from Trump’s own economic agency show that Americans are paying more for utility bills, more for health care, more for housing construction.”

When asked why Trump refers to complaints about affordability as a “hoax,” Bessent claimed it’s because rising prices are actually caused by the previous presidential administration.

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WARREN: Last week, Trump said 'we have the groceries going down.' Did grocery prices drop in 2025?BESSENT: Numerous prices haveWARREN: Did grocery prices drop in 2025?BESSENT: Numerous grocery prices have gone downWARREN: I'm sorry. I don't know if you can't hear me?

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-02-05T15:31:34.767Z

In another exchange, Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), who has served in the U.S. Congress since 1991, told Bessent, “Being the senior person here, your behavior to some of my colleagues is absolutely childish.”

Bessent sarcastically replied, “Thank you, senator. Good to see you.”

JACK REED: Being the senior person here, your behavior to some of my colleagues is absolutely childishBESSENT (with a shit-eating grin on his face): Thank you senator. Good to see you.

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-02-05T15:42:50.020Z

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) noted that Bessent had implied that Minnesota Veterans’ Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti was culpable for his own killing at the hands of federal immigration officers because he had a gun that he was licensed to carry. “Would you like to retract that statement?” Van Hollen asked Bessent.

Bessent replied by asking Van Hollen if he wanted to express remorse over the killing of Ashli Babbitt, a MAGA rioter who was shot dead by a U.S. Capitol police officer while she tried to forcibly enter a congressional chamber while rioting with other violent MAGA supporters during the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots.

VAN HOLLEN: You suggested Alex Pretti was culpable for his own killing because he had a gun he was licensed to carry. Would you like to retract that statement?BESSENT: I would not. Would you like to express remorse over the death of Ashli Babbitt here in the Capitol?

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-02-05T15:50:37.326Z

When Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) asked Bessent about the massive losses the U.S. tourism industry is experiencing because Trump’s immigration and visa policies have discouraged international travelers from visiting, Bessent asked Masto whether more Americans were visiting Las Vegas.

Masto said she wasn’t talking about domestic travel by Americans, adding, “[International tourism in the U.S. is] a trillion-dollar industry and you don’t seem to think it’s important.”

CORTEZ MASTO: How do intend to address the tourism issue, that we are losing money in this country bc of the administration's policies?BESSENT: Is overall the occupancy in Vegas down, or are more Americans going?CM: It's a trillion dollar industry and you don't seem to think it's important

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-02-05T16:04:03.940Z

At another point, when Sen. Tina Smith (D-NM) asked Bessent about financial distress being experienced by domestic farmers, Bessent repeated his oft-mocked claim that, until very recently, he himself was a farmer and therefore understands agricultural economic issues.

lmao Scott Bessent is still doing his soybean farmer gimmick

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-02-05T16:22:07.901Z

Sen. Ralph Warnock (D-GA) noted that 72,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost during the start of Trump’s presidency, largely the result of Trump’s tariffs. Bessent replied by proclaiming that the U.S. is experiencing “the beginnings of a manufacturing boom.”

WARNOCK: Trump said 'we're going to have a manufacturing boom.' Yes or no, have we had one?BESSENT: There's the beginnings of a manufacturing boom. We have intentions — factory groundbreakings WARNOCK: Do you know how many manufacturing jobs have been lost since 'liberation day'? 72,000

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-02-05T16:33:27.702Z

Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) asked Bessent why Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is involved in the federal government’s international talks with Russia despite having no official government position (which would require Kushner to undergo the same financial disclosures as every other government official to ensure no conflicts of interest). Bessent didn’t seem to consider that Kushner might have such conflicts.

KIM: We see the Trump family getting involved in different roles even though they don't have official positionsBESSENT: Why is Jared Kushner conflicted in the Russia talks?KIM: If he wants to participate, he should go by the same financial disclosures as every other government official

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-02-05T16:48:25.667Z

Sen. Kim also noted that Trump pardoned cryptocurrency businessman Changpeng Zhao after Zhao gave billions to Trump’s business. When asked whether that was a conflict of interest, Bessent claimed he was unfamiliar with the details.

KIM: When Binance founder Zhao pleaded guilty to violating money laundering laws & was sent to prison, Binance injected billions into Trump's business & Zhao was pardoned. Is that a conflict?BESSENT: I'm unfamiliar with any of thatKIM: Is it a conflict?BESSENT: Again, I'm not going to respond

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-02-05T16:45:19.630Z

When Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) noted that Trump was suing the IRS for $10 billion for allegedly leaking his tax records, Bessent said that the money would come out of the U.S. Treasury. Gallego corrected him, noting that the money would actually come out of funds provided by U.S. taxpayers.

When Bessent implied that Trump was suing the IRS on behalf of 44,000 other Americans whose tax returns were also leaked, Gallego noted that those Americans aren’t suing the IRS — only Trump is.

GALLEGO: Let's say Trump wins that lawsuit. Where would that $10 billion come from?BESSENT: It would come from TreasuryGALLEGO: So, taxpayers?BESSENT: Yes. Part of the 44,000 whose returns were leakedGALLEGO: They're not suing

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-02-05T16:53:16.480Z

Bessent’s Senate hearing occurred one day after his contentious hearing in the House, during which Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) shouted at Bessent, “Stop covering for the president. Don’t be a flunky. Work for the American people. Work for the American people. Don’t be a coverup for a mob.”

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When he was 14, self-described nerdy teenager Tim Curran joined the Boy Scouts.

Six years later, he sued them, after he’d come out as gay and they expelled him.

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Now, 51 years later, he’s back leading one of its troop, Xtra* reports.

“The very fact that I’m allowed back in is a sign that things have kind of moved full circle with the Scouting movement,” Curran said. “So I’m just sort of getting back on the merry-go-round as it comes around to where I’ve been standing this whole time.”

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Curran’s reunion with the scouts, now known as Scouting America, occurs as the organization has come under pressure from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to end its DEl policies and other social justice, gender-fluid ideological” stances.

“Back to God and country — immediately!” read a recent X post by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.

The Defense Department’s threat is reminiscent of the kinds of discrimination Curran fought against for years within scouting organization, beginning in the 1980s.

Not long after he made the rank of Eagle Scout, Curran, then 18, appeared in a local newspaper feature about “gay teens” in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he grew up and was a member of a Berkeley troop.

His sexuality didn’t become an issue until he was a college freshman, when Curran applied to be an adult volunteer at a national Scouting event. The Boy Scouts told him that being gay made him “ineligible and unfit to serve,” Curran said.

The Boy Scouts then expelled him from its ranks.

After making failed appeals to the organization, in 1981, Curran filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against the Scouts in California courts, alleging that the group discriminated against him because he was gay.

“Gay Boy Sues Boy Scouts,” read one headline in the years-long legal battle Curran waged. “Court Defends Gay’s Right to Membership in Troop,” read another.

His lawsuit was ultimately unsuccessful.

After a trial and several appeals, Curran, then 36, lost his case in the California Supreme Court in 1998. Scouting did not qualify as a “business establishment,” the threshold for being subject to California’s civil rights law, the court found.

Legally, the Scouts were free to set a discriminatory policy barring Curran and other gay Scouts and leaders from the organization.

Pressure from other gay scouts, however, led the Boy Scouts to end that policy.

In the 2010s, Scouts for Equality emerged with a campaign to sway the organization. Within a few years, gay scouts and leaders were welcomed into the Boy Scouts, the beginning of major shift embracing diversity in the organization.  

Soon after, the Boy Scouts also allowed trans boys and cis girls to join. In 2024, the group changed its name to Scouting America.

For years, the Scouts’ discriminatory policies, then Curran’s busy career as a journalist, kept him away from scouting. Now in his early 60s, Curran said he has more time on his hands. A local Scout leader in Manhattan encouraged him to rejoin the group as a volunteer.  

“It really isn’t checking a box or finishing a story or whatever,” Curran said of his return to scouting. “I mean, that’s great. I’m happy that that’s happening.”

“I see him just as another incredible human being mentoring our youth,” said his troop leader Antonio del Rosario.

Curran admits his first few interactions with the troop left him a little ill at ease, both in his new role as an adult volunteer, and confronted with his own history with the group.

He had a breakthrough, however, at one place that makes scouting so special: around the campfire.

Between skits, jokes, and songs at a recent winter campout, del Rosario brought Curran up to talk about why he was banned from Scouting, and take questions from the troop. Curran said the troop members were thoughtful and compassionate.

“Rejoining the Scouts, leading as an assistant Scoutmaster and now telling my story to the boys, represents the end of not just a chapter, but an entire volume in my life,” Curran said. “All the hopes, dreams, anger, and anxiety embodied in this journey, this project, can now be set aside.”

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