Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took aim at former Harvard President Larry Summers, who also served as treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, for politicizing the recent horrific flood in Texas. [emphasis, links added]
Speaking with ABC News on Sunday, Summers said the passage of President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” will lead to “2,000 days of death like we’ve seen in Texas this weekend.”
“The Yale Budget Lab estimates that it will kill, over 10 years, 100,000 people,” Summers told George Stephanopoulos. “That is 2,000 days of death like we’ve seen in Texas this weekend.”
Bessent called out Summers in a post on X, saying the former Harvard president, who was fired from his position, showed a “lack of humanity and judgment.”
“Today, former Treasury Secretary @LHSummers showed why he was forced to step down as president of @Harvard: a lack of humanity and judgment,” he wrote.
“In a shockingly callous interview on @ThisWeekABC, Professor Summers proclaimed that the One Big, Beautiful Bill will cause ‘…2,000 days of death like we’ve seen in Texas this weekend.’ Using the horrifying situation in Texas for cheap political gain is unfathomable,” he added.
Bessent then charged Summers with having “turned a human tragedy into a political cudgel.”
“Such remarks are feckless and deeply offensive. Professor Summers should immediately issue a public apology for his toxic language,” he said. “I hope the nonprofit and for-profit institutions with which he is affiliated will join me in this call. If he is unwilling or unable to acknowledge the cruelty of his remarks, they should consider Harvard’s example and make his unacceptable rhetoric grounds for dismissal.”
The flash floods in Texas over the weekend left over 82 people dead, including children, mostly young girls who were residing at the popular summer destination Camp Mystic.
“Rescue crews continued searching along the swollen Guadalupe River in Central Texas after catastrophic flooding left at least 80 people dead, officials in Texas said Sunday afternoon,” reported Accuweather.
Read rest at Breitbart
