House Hearing Devolves Into Nasty Spat As Trump Official Grilled On Rising Prices: Don’t Be ‘So Rude’

Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) and Trump Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins got into a heated spat during Thursday’s House Agriculture Committee hearing as Craig grilled Rollins on increasing prices under the Trump administration and admonished the Trump cabinet member for repeatedly trying to blame the Biden administration.

As the testy exchange devolved into the two speaking over each other, Rollins asked Craig not to be “so rude” and allow her time to answer questions. Craig showed her frustration with Rollins by repeatedly cutting her off and reclaiming her time.

Read the full exchange below:

Craig: Madam Secretary, do you know how many farms we lost in the United States last year?

Rollins: I know you were talking about the bankruptcies. I know that about 315 farms of $1.88 million are moving through bankruptcy right now.

Craig: Excuse me, we lost 15,000 farms last year.

Rollins: Well, that’s the conversation I would really like to have.

Craig: Some third, fourth, and fifth generation farms. OK, so not bankruptcy — just the purchase. We lost 15,000 farms because of bad policy on the part of this administration. I’m sorry, I’m going to ask the questions here today.
Rollins: OK, I would love a question.

Craig: Do you know how much money farmers lost last year? What their losses were last year? It was $28 billion. You’re the Secretary of Agriculture. $28 billion.

Rollins: Well, it depends how you calculate that, because I don’t think you’re taking into account all the crop protection, all the insurance, all of the different programs that went through to support our farmers.

Craig: And if this administration didn’t have terrible policies, we would not need all that support for family farmers, because we would have export markets still left in China.

Rollins: Madam Ranking Member, that is absolutely 100% not correct. When we lost all of our trade access around the world, we went to a $42 billion agricultural trade deficit. That was not the Trump administration.

Craig: Reclaiming my time means you stop talking. Reclaiming my time means you stop talking.

Craig: That’s what it means in this building. You stop talking when I reclaim my time. What’s the national average of farm diesel right now?

Rollins: The national average of — diesel has increased because of the Iranian conflict.

Craig: How much was it? How much is it right now?

Rollins: Well, before the Iranian conflict, it had gone way up. All inputs under the last administration increased about 40%. That’s what we inherited.

Craig: Reclaiming my time. Madam Secretary, Joe Biden is no longer the president of the United States — Mr. Trump is. Your party controls Congress. You own these numbers at this point in time. I’m sick of hearing you blame an administration from a year and a half ago. You own every single bit of this. Since you don’t know the answer: in May, the average price of diesel was $5.41 a gallon. That’s up 95% from a year ago — the entire year in which this administration was in power in the White House, the House, and the Senate. Let me ask you another question to see if you know anything about farm policy. Since the start of the Iran War, how much have fertilizer prices increased?

Rollins: Well, there are four different pockets of fertilizer. Nitrogen, I’m sure, is what you’re talking about, which is ammonia. That’s increased about 40% based on the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The others are a little more stable, but we are — now, it did go up almost 90% under the Biden years. So even though we’re hitting record numbers, I’m going to take that very seriously.

Craig: Reclaiming my time. You are in power. You own this entire town. Madam — I’m reclaiming my time.

Rollins: OK, I just ask you not to be so rude. I mean, I’d really like to have a legitimate conversation.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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