'I’m Not A Communist': Republicans Weaponize Biden Comptroller Pick's Birthplace
'I’m Not A Communist': Republicans Weaponize Biden Comptroller Pick's Birthplace
"This is all about the big banks not wanting to be regulated. Caving into that means 2008 all over again,” former White House attorney says
Born in Soviet-era Kazakhstan, Saule Omarova came to the United States in 1991, “with one suitcase and a fifty-dollar bill in my pocket.”
In the past, Republicans would have eagerly embraced someone like Omarova, who fled a communist society in favor of what the United States has to offer.
Not anymore.
Omarova, 55, has become an accomplished law professor, academic, and public policy advisor. Most recently, she's been nominated to serve as comptroller of the currency by President Biden.
When she appeared this week before senators for her confirmation hearing, Republicans chose to weaponize Omarova's place of birth against her, savaging her as a “communist,” in the process.
Republican Sen John Kennedy, of Louisiana, addressed her by saying, “I don’t know whether to call you professor or comrade.”
Kennedy’s remark was so egregious that, when he said it, someone off-camera could be heard to exclaim, “Oh my goodness.”
“I’m not a communist. I do not subscribe to that ideology. I could not choose where I was born,” the nominee replied.
Omarova explained that, because she was born in the Soviet Union, she was part of school youth programs mandated for students.
To Kennedy's attempt to drag Omarova through the mud, Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) fired back, “Sexism, racism, pages straight out of Joe McCarthy’s 1950s Red Scare tactics … Welcome to Washington in 2021.”
Republicans are so strongly opposed to the Omarova nomination because she advocates for strong banking regulations — hardly communism, unless you're in the right wing.
Omarova would be the first woman and person of color in the role in the 158-year-history of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
Author Jason Overstreet clapped back on social media against Kennedy's attack of Omarova.
“The dick of the day trophy goes to Sen. John Kennedy for trying to vilify Dr. Saule Omarova—Biden’s nominee to head up the OCC—as some dangerous communist because she was born in Kazakhstan and is now a brilliant law professor at Cornell. Racist, sexist trash,” he tweeted.
CNN anchor and correspondent Jim Sciutto likewise defended Omarova.
“Beyond the baseless offensiveness, the point is that Dr. Omarova actually knows what Communism is and does. As she says, ‘My family suffered under Communism.’ The lawmakers throwing the term around today usually have no idea what they’re talking about,” he wrote.
Richard Painter, the White House ethics attorney during the administration of George W Bush, also defended Omarova from baseless claims of being a communist.
“I have run into a lot of crazy academics who spout a lot of crazy theories. Saule Omarova is not one of them. This is all about the big banks not wanting to be regulated. Caving into that means 2008 all over again,” he tweeted, referring to the US banking and economic collapse that year.
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