Mnuchin Blocks UCLA From Releasing Video of Him Being Heckled

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was taunted with hisses, heckles and profanity during a lecture and moderated discussion at UCLA this week. Protesters were carried out by armed police officers. A sixth-grader in the audience questioned him about the fairness of passing permanent tax cuts for companies and expiring cuts for individuals.

But the official video footage of the university’s Arnold C. Harberger Lecture, hosted by the Burkle Center for International Relations, is nowhere to be found. That is because Mnuchin took the unusual step of revoking his consent for it to be released given the contentiousness of the event.

“The Burkle Center and Treasury Department officials had an agreement to post the video of Secretary Mnuchin’s lecture at UCLA to the center’s website following the event,” said Peggy McInerny, a university spokeswoman. “Treasury Department officials subsequently withdrew their consent to post the video.”

Although Mnuchin did not want to give additional publicity to those who disrupted him, the shielding of the video has drawn more attention to the series of tense exchanges. Snippets of the scene that were captured on cellphones have ricocheted around social media in the days since the event. American Public Media’s “Marketplace,” whose host, Kai Ryssdal, moderated the discussion, published the complete audio.

Mnuchin was clearly agitated by such vocal dissent. At one point, as the hissing grew more audible, he shot back and said, “I’m dealing with students, I forgot,” and remarked of the protesters, “I think they’re going to get more tired than I am.”

He also took issue with the line of questioning from Ryssdal, who at one point suggested that the Treasury Department engineered the economic growth estimates in the analysis of its tax plan.

“Well, you must seem to have a bias because you’re using the words ‘engineered,'” Mnuchin said.

The protests were organized by Lara Stemple, a UCLA law professor, and students and faculty members participated. Outside the event, demonstrators dressed as Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette, and cut cake.

The incident shows the difficulty that Trump administration officials can face when traveling to progressive enclaves such as Los Angeles. In late 2017, a box of horse feces was left for Mnuchin, a former Hollywood film investor, near the residence he maintains in the city.

The Treasury Department pushed back against criticism that Mnuchin was not being transparent by barring the release of the university’s copy of the video.

“The event was open to the media and a transcript was published,” a Treasury spokeswoman said. “He believes healthy debate is critical to ensuring the right policies that do the most good are advanced.”