WATCH: Elizabeth Warren Goes Off on Steve Mnuchin Over Coronavirus Bailout

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren went off on Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin for failing to sufficiently protect American jobs in his role administering coronavirus aid, drowning out his protestations with heaps of scorn.

On Tuesday, Mnuchin testified at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee on the $2 trillion CARES Act coronavirus relief bill. Senator Warren used her time to press Mnuchin on his handling of the bill’s loan program.

“On Fox News you said, quote, ‘We will have a better third quarter, we’ll have a better fourth quarter, and next year is going to be a great year. Now to make that happen, people are going to need jobs. So does this mean that you will require companies that receive the bailout money from the taxpayers to keep their workers on payroll?” Warren asked.

Mnuchin first noted that “I have said publicant and I’ll say again I think the job numbers will get worse before they get better, so I just want to be very clear that I think the June will be a very difficult quarter.”

“As it relates to the CARES Act, I take great pride in the bipartisan support on these bills, and these specifics were negotiated on a bipartisan basis very clearly in each one of these programs, and it is our intent, in the 13-3 facilities, to fulfill both the spirit and the details of the law. So different facilities have different requirements,” Mnuchin said, as Warren cut him off.

“So I’m sorry Secretary Mnuchin, that’s not quite right,” Warren interrupted. “What the law specifically does is gives you the specific authority to determine the terms on which these loans are made and who’s going to be able to get them for these midsize and giant corporations. And so I have very simple question for you, you say the economy is going to recover, it’s going to take jobs in order for that to happen, so what I want to know is are you going to require companies that receive money from this half a trillion dollar slush fund to have to keep people on payroll, it’s a simple question yes or no? Are you going to require that?”

Mnuchin began to discuss the bill’s provisions again, so Warren interrupted again to say “I’m sorry, I have very limited time here, Mr. Secretary, let me understand what you’re saying. In all the facilities that are not the main street facilities, you’re not putting in any requirement for payroll, and the main street facility is something about commercial reasonable effort to be able to maintain jobs.”

“In other words, if somebody fires, if a corporation fires a bunch of people then gets federal taxpayer money, you’re fine with that, or if they take a bunch of federal taxpayer money and then say well it didn’t work out commercially for us, then they can fire people,” she continued. “So I take it your answer to my question that whether or not you are going to require as part of the terms of the loan that people be kept on payroll is no?”

“That was discussed with people on both sides of the aisle,” Mnuchin began, but Warren cut him off again.

“No, I’m talking about your term sheets that you’re putting out, and you’re telling me you’re not going to require any payroll,” Warren said, then asked Mnuchin if he would “create a certification process that ensures that executives are held personally liable and are subject to criminal penalties if they provide false information or misuse bailout funds?”

“We will review that,” Mnuchin said, then pushed back on Warren’s earlier comments by saying “I would just comment on programs like the airline programs had very specific requirements to keep jobs which was the intent of Congress…”

“That’s right, and the rest was left up to you, and what you’re saying is that you won’t do it,” Warren interrupted again. “You know we’re in a situation where 35 million Americans have filed for unemployment, you’re in charge of nearly half a trillion dollars, you’re boosting your Wall Street buddies, and you are leaving the American people behind.”

“Senator Warren, I think that’s a very unfair characterization, and these issues were discussed with both Republicans and Democrats at the time, you were not necessarily part of those discussions but these were completely discussed,” Mnuchin said.

As the chair gaveled, Warren concluded by saying “You were given the authority to determine the terms, you’ve said it yourself, you’re putting out term sheets and those term sheets do not require that a single corporation getting billions of dollars in taxpayer money retain one job.”

Watch the clip above via C-Span.