'We want him here': Maxine Waters urges Bankman-Fried to testify

House Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) on Friday said she has invited FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to testify at the panel's Dec. 13 hearing on the cryptocurrency exchange's collapse.

"We want him here," Waters told POLITICO. "If he's talking and giving interviews, we'd like for him to be just as candid with us."

Bankman-Fried has not yet responded to the invitation, Waters said. She is open to letting him appear via video, as he did at this week's New York Times DealBook Summit.

The former FTX CEO has signaled that he would be open to testifying before Congress. Bankman-Fried on Wednesday said at the DealBook conference that he "would not be surprised if I'm up there talking about what happened to our representatives."

Lawmakers' calls for Bankman-Fried to testify in front of Congress are beginning to hit a crescendo with the FTX founder staying in the public eye. In recent days, Bankman-Fried has gone on a media tour of sorts, giving interviews on "Good Morning America" and in publications such as New York magazine.

Both Waters and the House Financial Services Committee's top Republican, Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, tweeted Friday that Bankman-Fried should testify at the hearing.

"We'd love to get Sam Bankman-Fried," said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), another senior committee member, in an interview. "I can't imagine that he would subject himself to the physical enforcement of American law. But we'd probably take him by video if we could get him."

Others on Capitol Hill are calling for as much, too. The Senate Banking Committee is expected to hold its own FTX hearing in December, though a date has yet to be announced. Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, the panel's top Republican, said Friday on CNBC that he wants to bring Bankman-Fried in front of the committee.