‘It Looks Like a Conflict of Interest: Pro-Trump CNBC Host Confronts Howard Lutnick About Business Deal in Surprising Moment

CNBC’s Joe Kernen pressed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on perceptions of a “conflict of interest” amid accusations his position is directly benefitting his family.

Lutnick joined Kernen on Squawk Box on Wednesday morning and Kernen gave Lutnick the opportunity to directly address some of the concerns about his family’s business dealings.

Kernen noted Lutnick’s previous role with the firm Cantor Fitzgerald and accusations he influenced a “pipe financing deal” involving his former company, which his sons now run:

Howard, I understand this. You ran Cantor. You ran it well. You had a relationship. You did their IPO before you became a Commerce Secretary, so no surprise there. You put it in a trust, and your sons are now running Cantor, and there was a pipe financing deal done, where to get, I think, the financing from the Commerce Department Cantor was involved with raising some of the equity and obviously they get a fee.

So the perception is that you’re sitting now at Commerce and you’re able to control what Cantor is getting in terms of fees with your sons running that company. It looks like a conflict of interest. How do you respond to that?

Lutnick denied he knew Cantor was involved in the deal and argued the U.S. needs to be more aggressive on rare minerals in order to combat China.

He also noted there is no “conflict of interest” since he sold his company to his sons:

I didn’t put my companies in a trust. My kids bought my companies so I’m no longer involved in my old companies at all. My kids bought it from me. They own it and I had nothing to do with that decision and this is minor stuff anyway. You know that I am well-to-do. I don’t worry about this kind of stuff. The only thing I care about is I’m serving America. And people saying this kind of stuff are just trying to, you know, throw dirt at me and the Trump administration. But all I care about is America. All I’m here to do is take care of America.

Kernen pressed further and read from a June report from The New York Times that laid out how Lutnick and President Donald Trump’s family have been benefitting financially from a major mining deal.

“The president, this family, you’re both very wealthy, but that doesn’t mean that there can’t be a perception that both families are benefiting from the positions you have now,” Kernen said.

The CNBC host noted Democratic lawmakers have already red-flagged Lutnick’s business ties and he asked whether the Trump official expects to be tied up in investigations should Democrats take the majority in Congress in the midterms.

Lutnick dismissed potential inquiries as “silly questions” and a “waste of time” he’s not concerned with:

Look, my old firm has 12,000 employees and did $12 billion of revenue. It’s going to be involved in all sorts of business in financing on Wall Street. It’s a big, successful company. And to suggest that I care at all, or the president cares at all is just wrong. I couldn’t care less about these things. All I care about is the bigger picture and about America.

And you know what? If the Democrats send me letters, I will respond to the letters, but they don’t matter. Since when you do nothing wrong, you don’t worry about it and you don t care. You just answer their silly questions and you move on. This is a waste of time trying to create something that doesn’t exist.

Watch above via CNBC.

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