On Tuesday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," Wolf Blitzer's panel laid into Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin for his overt rudeness to Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) at a budgetary hearing for his department.
During that hearing, Mnuchin repeatedly told her he had an "important meeting" to be at, reminded her of the time, and even told her to gavel out the session.
"You usually have to go to a junior high school student council to see debate at that level," said CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. "'I'm supposed to leave in 15 minutes!' Come on. The problem with this administration is they're not used to having congressional oversight. For two years the Republicans didn't even ask them any questions and it's like, 'Oh, I have the meeting at 5:15.'"
Blitzer and other panelists noted that Waters, whose committee oversees Mnuchin's department, is the same congresswoman who President Donald Trump has repeatedly mocked as "low IQ."
"Two things in there that were specifically disrespectful, Wolf," said the Washington Post's David Swerdlick. "First, he said 'his important meeting,' implying the meeting they were having right then and there wasn't important. Second, telling her she should gavel out the committee as if he's running the meeting, not her."
"To the point that Jeffrey made about Republicans not being used to oversight," Swerdlick continued. "It's also — and I think some viewers are not going to like this — it's also the case that I think you have a situation of a wealthy powerful white man not liking to be told what to do by an African-American woman sitting congressional chair ... It's a pattern in this administration."
Watch below:
