Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) grilled a Trump nominee during the Senate Housing, Banking and Urban Affairs Committee on Thursday.
Warren reminded Christopher Phelan, the president's pick for White House Council of Economic Advisers, that if approved for the advisory job his role would be focused on offering "objective economic advice."
"Let's go through a few objective facts," Warren said. "Americans are spending more on everything from gas to groceries, prices are rising faster than paychecks and Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill rips away healthcare coverage for 15 million people in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and giant corporations, and it adds $4.7 trillion to the national debt and that is why we need someone who will tell the truth about the economy and not just say whatever it is that the president wants them to say."
Warren asked Phelan if inflation was higher today than it was in February 2025.
"Headline inflation now is certainly lower than it was during the Biden administration," Phelan said.
Warren interrupted Phelan and pushed back.
"I'm sorry. Come on. Let's not play this game," Warren said.
Phelan did not answer the question directly.
"I don't want to know how fast you can dance. I want to know if you can answer simple, factual questions," Warren said.
She pushed back with several other questions, cutting off Phelan's responses.
"You have now made clear what your position is and that is you can't even do basic facts," Warren said. "I didn't even get to the hard questions here."
"I think this person has disqualified himself in five minutes," Warren added.
"You can't even do the basic facts!" -- Here's the full footage of Elizabeth Warren dismantling Christopher Phelan, Trump's nominee to be chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, by asking him basic factual questions about the state of the economy that Phelan refuses to answer… pic.twitter.com/MR06EQCV1X
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 25, 2026