Saule Omarova, a law professor at Cornell University, was nominated by Joe Biden for the important position of Comptroller of the Currency. If confirmed, she would have regulated and supervised large banks like Citibank, J.P. Morgan, and other national financial institutions.
But Ms. Omarova had some loopy ideas about how the nation’s banking system should work. She suggested that the Federal Reserve should take a more active role in consumer banking. She also said it would be better if smaller oil and gas companies were to go bankrupt. Gotta save the planet, ya know?
Omarova isn’t the first wild-eyed radical to be nominated by Biden. Neera Tandem withdrew herself from Biden’s nomination to lead the Office of Management and Budget, after several of her insulting tweets about Republicans came to light.
There have been other nominees that raised questions about the Biden team’s sanity. How about the gun regulator who didn’t think people had a right to bear arms? David Chipman was forced to withdraw his nomination to be chief of the ATF when past statements turned up about his belief that the Second Amendment didn’t apply to individuals.
Now, with Saule Omarova’s withdrawal, we have one less madcap socialist to worry about.
The conversation came after Messrs. Tester and Warner challenged Ms. Omarova at the Nov. 18 hearing over her past writing and thinking on banking oversight. Mr. Tester also pressed her at the hearing over remarks she made earlier this year calling for smaller oil-and-gas companies to go bankrupt to aid the U.S. in tackling climate change.
Ms. Omarova responded to Mr. Tester at the hearing by saying she misspoke and that her remarks weren’t well-framed. “My intention was…exactly the opposite,” she said. “We need to help those companies to get restructured.”
Would you buy a used national bank from this woman?
Related: Terrifying: Biden Is Nominating Soviet-Trained Radicals Now
For his part, Biden tried to paint Ms. Omarova as someone she was not: a cautious, moderate, middle-of-the-road regulator.
“As a strong advocate for consumers and a staunch defender of the safety and soundness of our financial system, Saule would have brought invaluable insight and perspective to our important work on behalf of the American people,” Mr. Biden said on Tuesday. “But unfortunately, from the very beginning of her nomination, Saule was subjected to inappropriate personal attacks that were far beyond the pale.”
Ms. Omarova’s defenders also include liberal-leaning Democrats such as Mr. Brown and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. They have said she is an accomplished banking expert who will stand up to the industry. The senators say Washington regulators have been too deferential to big banks in recent years and that Ms. Omarova would work to make the financial system more inclusive for consumers.
Some of Ms. Omarova’s background was rightfully called into question. She attended that bastion of capitalism, Moscow State University, before coming to America and doing post-graduate work at Northwestern and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. None of those schools are known for turning out pro-capitalist graduates.
It should be expected that Biden nominates people who reflect the majority view of Democrats, which is that America needs to be transformed and capitalism has to be reformed. But in his eagerness to please the radicals, he sends up nominees that are too radical even for Democrats.
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