Elizabeth Warren RIPS John Kennedy’s Questioning Of Soviet-Born Nominee: ‘Straight Out of Joe McCarthy’s 1950s Red Scare Tactics’
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) accused one of her Senate Republican colleagues of “Red Scare tactics” in his questioning of a nominee who was born in the Soviet Union in 1966.
The obscure but nonetheless important nomination within the Department of the Treasury has received an usual amount of attention among the senators who will decide whether to confirm Saule Omarova, who was nominated by President Joe Biden to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The division oversees and regulates the nation’s banking industry. Her nomination has thus far not gone particularly smoothly thanks to the fact that she has been very critical of large financial institutions and once said they comprise “a quintessential asshole industry.”
Another reason her nomination has proven problematic – at least in the eyes of Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) – is that she was born in the U.S.S.R.
During Omarova’s confirmation hearing on Thursday, Kennedy brought up her harsh critiques of the banking industry and claimed she had joined a Marxist Facebook group at one point. He also highlighted her membership in a communist youth organization in the Soviet Union, whose membership was mandatory.
“Everybody in that country was a member of the Komsomol, which was the communist youth organization,” she explained.
After telling Omarova that she has a right to believe what she believes, Kennedy said, “I don’t mean any disrespect. I don’t know whether to call you professor or comrade.”
“I’m not a communist,” she retorted. “I do not subscribe to that ideology. I could not choose where I was born. I do not remember joining any Facebook group that subscribes to [Marxist] ideology.”
After a tense exchange with Senate banking committee chair Sherrod Brown (D-OH) about Kennedy’s line of questioning, it was Warren’s turn:
Professor Omarova, I know that the giant banks object to your willingness to enforce the law to keep our system safe, and that you may cut into big bank profits. So they and their Republican buddies have declared war on you. The attacks on your nomination have been vicious and personal. We’ve just seen them. Sexism, racism, pages straight out of Joe McCarthy’s 1950s Red Scare tactics. It is all there on full display. Welcome to Washington in 2021.
Warren asked Omarova about a claim that she would seek to nationalize the banking industry.
“Does the OCC have the power to end private banking and to move all consumer deposits to a public ledger?” asked Warren.
“Absolutely not,” Omarova replied.
“If the OCC did have that power, is that something you would support?”
“Absolutely not.”
“And are you a capitalist who believes in free markets?”
“Yes, I am.”
“So, great,” said Warren. “Now that we’ve put that on the record, I’d like to get to the real reason that your nomination has generated such fierce opposition. And I think it lies in what the OCC does have the power to do.”
Watch above via C-SPAN.
