Rep. Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee known for her fiery criticism of the Trump administration, was about to launch a tough question at Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent when he reminded her they’d partied together in the Bahamas.
“This is the first time we’ve met, is that correct?” Ms. Waters asked the secretary at an oversight hearing Wednesday as she geared up to grill him.
“No ma’am, we actually met one New Year’s Eve in the Bahamas,” Mr. Bessent answered.
The hearing room erupted into gales of laughter and a disconcerted Ms. Waters, seeking to restore the decorum and her own composure, volleyed back at Mr. Bessent, “You didn’t make an impression.”
She asked him, perhaps rhetorically, about why she did not remember their meeting.
He had an answer for that, too.
“Well, you were much better at the electric slide than I was,” he recalled, referencing the popular line dance created in the 1970s.
Ms. Waters, California Democrat, has been a frequent visitor to the tropical paradise. Her husband was the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas from 1994 to 1998 during the Clinton administration, and she has continued to visit in recent years. She attended the nation’s independence celebration in 2023, according to an article in the Washington Informer.
Mr. Bessent, a former hedge fund manager, didn’t say what year he witnessed Ms. Waters’ dance moves. But he told her that he met Tuesday with the Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis, “who sends his regards.”
