Overview
- Video shows CODEPINK organizer Olivia DiNucci interrupting Bessent at Reveler’s Hour on Dec. 17, ahead of President Trump’s State of the Union address.
- Bessent replied by calling the protester “ignorant,” then complained to staff and departed after the restaurant declined to remove the activists.
- DiNucci accused Bessent of overseeing sanctions linked to roughly 564,000 to 600,000 deaths annually, citing a Lancet analysis featured in coverage.
- CODEPINK publicly claimed credit for the action on social media, and no arrests or official Treasury statements were reported in the articles reviewed.
- A claim that Bessent spat into his own food before leaving originates from social-media posts and remains unverified by independent reporting.