Earlier this month, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) questioned a Biden Administration Official on the Department of the Treasury during a Senate Banking Committee hearing.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Listening to you today, Deputy Secretary, it feels like digital assets
00:07 has become the scapegoat of this administration because with all that's going on in the world,
00:12 the only legislative requests you have sent to this committee are new authorities related to
00:17 cryptocurrency. And I will say that if China buys about 90 percent of the Iranian oil,
00:23 and we make it easier to sell the Iranian oil, if in last August we saw a $6 billion transfer to
00:29 the Iranians for, in my opinion, hostage relief, $10 billion allowing electricity waivers,
00:37 none of that's happening in digital assets. They're literally using our cash. We're making
00:41 it easier for them to use euros. The bottom line is this, that if $35 billion represents the export
00:48 of oil from Iran, none of which is purchased using digital assets, having a conversation
00:55 simply and exclusively about digital assets, misses the elephant in the room that every
01:01 single time we make it easier for the Iranian regime to receive resources from the United
01:07 States in cash, pallets of cash, or through electricity waivers, use euros or license,
01:13 we put more and more Americans and our allies in harm's way, and that includes Israel. And so for
01:20 us to have a conversation that sounds like a digital asset conversation, as opposed to a
01:26 conversation about illicit financing that is far larger than digital assets, to me,
01:33 makes it into a scapegoat. I'd love to hear why the Treasury Department made it a determination
01:40 to change the recent electricity waivers to allow for the use of euros. Was that a request from the
01:47 Iranians? Senator, just for the record, that is an authority that the State Department has. But I
01:54 think the most important thing to point out here is that on both the electricity waiver, but also
01:59 the $6 billion, both of those are monies that are tied up in financial institutions. None of that
02:06 money will ever see its way to Iran. At most, that money can be used to purchase things outside of
02:12 Iran. The challenge here is that while we can stop that money from financial institutions moving to
02:17 Iran, I don't have the authorities to stop cryptocurrencies from moving into Iran. That's
02:22 why I've asked for those authorities. But fundamentally, what I can say is that $6 billion--
02:26 Senator, let's have a conversation about this for just a second. You are a highly educated,
02:32 brilliant man. To sit here and to suggest that you don't understand us giving around $6 billion
02:43 that they will be able to use at some point, and then the administration said,
02:48 they can't use it for this purpose, but they can use it for that purpose. Money is fungible.
02:52 You don't have to be as educated as you are to know that money is fungible. So the bottom line
02:58 is simply this. Anytime we allow the Iranians to have more access to cash, euros, balance sheets,
03:06 we are making it easier for their proxies to use their resources to target Americans,
03:14 as has been done for the last several months. In addition to that, our allies. Anytime we relax
03:21 the regime that makes it harder for them to sell oil, making it easier for them to do so,
03:28 with China happily purchasing those resources, we don't have to be that smart to realize
03:35 that all of this makes it harder on our allies and deadly for our service members. So
03:43 I just find it preposterous that we would posit a position that suggests that those resources
03:51 have no impact on what Iran is doing. And frankly, if that were the case,
03:57 we would not have released them at all. Senator, can I make a point? Please, oh yes, sir.
04:01 So Senator, you're right that in democracy, money is fungible. But what we've seen time and time
04:07 from the Iranian regime is they failed to feed their people and they put the IRGC first.
04:13 Any dollar they have will go towards their violent activity before they deal with their people.
04:17 That's partially why almost none of the humanitarian money has been used for
04:21 humanitarian purposes, because they don't care about getting drugs and food for their people.
04:25 But the difference is that the United States of America has made as a values proposition
04:30 that we are always going to provide humanitarian relief for people. And that's what we've said
04:34 is the only purpose for this money. So while in our country, money is fungible, in Iran,
04:39 they've proven that any dollar they get that they have direct access to in the country will be used
04:45 for the IRGC before it's ever used for their people. Secretary, just because I'm not the
04:49 chairman of this committee, and he is, he's going to cut me off as soon as I say something he
04:53 doesn't like. So let me just suggest this. You and I actually agree on that point,
04:57 that the Iranian regime does not care about the Iranian people. Therefore, any relaxation
05:05 that allows their economy to thrive or survive is for one purpose, for them to carry out
05:14 their primary objective, which is spreading terrorism throughout the Middle East and
05:21 eliminating the little Satan, and then the big Satan. That would be Israel and America.