Kirsten Gillibrand

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) got into a heated exchange with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner during a Senate hearing on Thursday afternoon.

Gillibrand pressed Turner on what he has accomplished during his tenure so far, asking him whether the homeless population has increased or decreased since he took office. Instead of directly answering the question, Turner repeatedly criticized former President Joe Biden’s administration.

“The Point-in-Time Report in the Biden administration HUD said we had 770,700 people in America that were homeless at one given time. And this is with record funding. So we have record funding, but yet we have an increase,” Turner said.

Gillibrand appeared frustrated with his response, demanding to know what his team has done to combat homelessness instead of blaming the previous administration.

“What is your record? You had this job for well over a year. I just want to know, did you get the number down? Do we have 700,000 homeless still, or is it a million or 1.5. So I get you want to do things differently, and this committee will support you as long as the goals are good, but where’s the results?” Gillibrand said.

“The report is delayed over a year, over a year! but I just don’t want to hear about what you don’t like about the Biden administration,” she added.

Turner responded by bashing the Biden administration again.

“I thank God that I’m in charge so we can do something different, because the plays that were ran before I got here, they failed. I’ve been here. Let me speak, if you will. I got here. You said I have been here a little bit over a year, but you all had during the Biden administration four years,” he said, leading to an exasperated outburst from Gillibrand.

“Stop talking about Biden. Talk about your record. This is so inaccurate, unhelpful, and doesn’t let this committee do our job,” Gillibrand said.

Turner responded by explaining he did not have the report ready because of the government shutdown and ongoing litigation, which left Gillibrand confused.

“Secretary, I think you’re obfuscating. In what way did litigation slow down your report?” she asked.

“A government shutdown helps us to not be able to work,” he said.

“I get that, but tell me about the litigation,” she said.

“The Point-in-Time Report would be out right now if we did not have a government shutdown, irregardless of all of that, during the Biden administration, record funding — " Turner responded before Gillibrand cut him off.

“Oh, my God!” she said. “It’s like two children saying, ‘I didn’t do it. My brother did it.’ Stop with the excuses! Just explain your record.”

The exchange, shared online by journalist Aaron Rupar, garnered attention on social media platform X. MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski said it was an “embarrassing display.”

“Unserious, incompetent people in every cabinet position. Just be incompetent and blame Biden. That’s their entire platform. What a joke,” Filipkowski wrote.

JoJo From Jerz, a liberal political commentator, posted: “None of these people are accountable for their own actions. Not a single f---ing one. It’s always ‘but Biden.’”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) praised Gillibrand’s line of questioning.

“A lesson on how to call their BS,” he wrote.

Gillibrand also shared the clip of the exchange on X.