Energy Secretary Chris Wright found himself in a corner on June 10 during a heated exchange in a congressional budget hearing with Rep. Emilia Sykes and his attempts to get out of it only made things worse.
It started when Sykes pressed Wright directly on whether he knew the United States had been seizing millions of barrels of Iranian oil in the Strait of Hormuz. Wright’s response was immediate … and telling.
“Just not sure ‘taking’ is the right word,” Wright told Sykes. “We’re preventing the flow of it.”
The Ohio Democrat wasn’t satisfied and put Wright on the spot. She moved to play audio of President Trump speaking in the Oval Office that morning, where the president appeared to confirm exactly what Wright had just danced around, boasting that the U.S. had been pulling millions of barrels of Iranian oil.
“Do you know, we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil? Nobody knows it. You know who doesn’t know about it? Iran, until right now. We took out the other night 22 ships late at night with no lights, because they don’t have any radar, because we blasted the crap out of it,” Trump said.
Withins seconds the room shifted and Sykes turned right back to Wright.
“Mr. Secretary, it seems like you didn’t know about this either,” she said pointedly.
“I understand this might be an uncomfortable line of questioning and you don’t want to do it,” she pressed on, looking directly at him. “But you’re not answering my question. So I’m going to ask you again and I hope that you will answer honestly.”
Wright conceded: “I’m unaware.”
Sykes then moved in for the central question. Did that make the president a liar? Wright reached for an exit.
“I do not think the president’s lying,” Wright insisted. “I think the president’s talking casually about our efforts to stop the flow of Iranian oil.”
That word, casually, opened a door Sykes walked straight through.
“Do you think it is appropriate to talk casually about war?” she pressed. “There are 13 service members who are dead. There are hundreds more that are injured.”
Wright tried to reframe it, arguing Trump “speaks 20 hours a day in different styles for different audiences.” But Sykes refused to let it land.
“He is the commander in chief who is responsible for 13 service members who have died,” she shot back. “So you mean to tell me, testifying in front of this committee, that it is appropriate for the commander in chief to talk about war casually?”
Wright’s final answer: “He speaks candidly, openly, and honestly.”
Sykes closed it out plainly. “I appreciate your attempt to protect your boss and keep your job. But let me be very clear. It is not appropriate to talk about war casually.”
Watch full clip here.
