House Democrats blasted Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick following his closed-door testimony regarding his alleged ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Lutnick on Wednesday appeared before the House Oversight Committee to answer questions about Lutnick’s prior meetings with the deceased sex trafficker. In recent months, the secretary has had to answer questions about his Epstein ties after files revealed his family visited his island in 2012 — four years after Epstein was convicted on prostitution charges involving a minor. Lutnick previously claimed he hadn’t been in touch with Epstein since 2005.

After Lutnick’s latest interview, House Democrats were left fuming at his display. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) claimed President Donald Trump would fire Lutnick if he heard the answers he gave, adding that Lutnick’s performance was “really embarrassing.”

Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA) claimed that Lutnick struggled to answer “basic questions,” saying:

He’s lying, and today’s transcribed interview is part of the ongoing cover-up because the American people deserve to see the video of what’s taking place in there. They deserve to see the sweat on the secretary’s brow as he struggles to answer basic questions about his lies to the American people. We’re gonna continued to listen and ask tough questions, but unfortunately, it appears that Secretary Lutnick is not gonna take any responsibility for lying to the American people today.

Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) accused Lutnick of being a “pathological liar who is enabling the most egregious cover-up in American history.”

“I mean, the level of the lies that are taking place inside that room without video is unbelievable and part of this egregious cover-up,” Ansari continued. “I recommend that every single American when this interview is released, read the document in full.”

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) was left dumbfounded by Lutnick’s testimony and even went as far as calling for the secretary to resign.

“Howard Lutnick should resign,” Subramanyam said. “That was absolutely mind boggling what we just heard in the room. He was evasive, nervous, he was dishonest. He would not admit to lying, which he clearly did in the podcast. He said he was never in the room with Jeffrey Epstein ever again after the first time he met him, yet he then admitted that he was in the room with Jeffrey Epstein. I had to ask him whether he and I were in the same room because I couldn’t understand his meaning of ‘we were in the same room together.'”

At the time of writing, the full transcript of Lutnick’s hearing had not yet been published.

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