Elizabeth Warren Throws Down With Scott Bessent on Grocery Prices: You’re ‘Denying the Facts’

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sparred with Trump Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a contentious exchange at Thursday’s Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on the state of the economy.

Warren repeatedly pressed Bessent to acknowledge data from the Trump administration showing grocery prices had increased in 2025, which Bessent refused to do until she cited it.

Warren began her questioning, “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, for a solid year while he ran for president, Donald Trump promised pretty much every day that he was going to lower costs on day one if he was elected. Those were his words, not mine. So, Secretary Bessent, you are one of the president’s top economic advisors. Let’s just start with a little truth-telling about the Trump economy one year in. Affordability is the top concern for Americans across the country. Donald Trump has called affordability, I want to get this right, a hoax. He’s called it a scam. He’s called it a con job. You’re the Secretary of the Treasury; you know the numbers. Is affordability a hoax, a scam, or a con job?”

Bessent replied, “Senator, it may be a bit nuanced for you, but what President Trump is referring to is the media saying that the affordability crisis was generated by this administration when it was you and President Biden who destroyed the buying power of the American people. So there is an affordability crisis, and you were front and center in it.”

Warren hit back, “So let me make sure that I understand. Donald Trump is not saying that affordability, what’s happening to families right now, is a hoax?”

Bessent responded, “He is saying that trying to lay the blame at this administration rather than the Biden-Warren economy is a hoax.”
Warren added, “Okay, so it all happened before he got it, and everything that’s happened since then, nothing is a hoax?”

Bessent shot back, “21.5% cumulative inflation.”

Warren then asked, “Let me just ask about what’s happened in the one year that Donald Trump has been president. Last week, President Trump said, quote, we have the groceries going down. Did grocery prices drop in 2025?”

Bessent replied, “Numerous prices have.”

Warren repeated, “Did grocery prices drop in 2025?”

Bessent doubled down, “Numerous grocery prices have gone down.”

Warren repeated, “I’m sorry. I don’t know if you can’t hear me. Did grocery prices drop in 2025?”

Bessent replied, “Numerous grocery prices have gone down.”

Warren cut in, “Some of them,” and continued over Bessent, adding:

Have you seen the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that is Donald Trump’s own Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, that report that grocery prices were 2.4 percent higher at the end of 2025 than they were at the end of 2024? Trump’s own Department of Agriculture has projected that those prices will be higher in 2026.

And under Donald Trump, families are paying more and more for groceries. So if you’re just going to insult people by denying the facts that are out there and tell people they’re doing great when they’re struggling, I think that’s just another way to say you don’t have a plan to bring down these prices. You’re not willing to admit the failures of the Trump administration.

I will ask you a question in just a sec here. It’s not just groceries. The numbers from Trump’s own economic agencies show that Americans are paying more for utility bills, more for health care, more for housing, more for construction. Families aren’t fooled by these lies. Mr. Secretary, you owe it to American families to own up to what’s going on.

Warren then pivoted to ask about the incoming Fed chairman and the threats he’s already facing from President Trump about lowering interest rates – before even being confirmed.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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