President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that it had accepted Soule Omarova’s request to withdraw her nomination to head the office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The Soviet-born Cornell law professor proved a controversial choice from the start.
Republican His membership of youth communist organizations and his scathing criticism of Wall Street were questioned, but his nomination was eventually sunk when moderate Democratic senators said they could not support him.
And he had to endure the humiliation of headlines about how he was arrested for shoplifting from TJ Max in 1995.
In a statement, Biden said that Omarova’s background growing up under Soviet rule before immigrating to the US meant she was living the American dream.
“As a strong advocate for consumers and a staunch defender of the security and soundness of our financial system, Soule will bring invaluable insight and perspective to our important work on behalf of the American people,” he said.
‘But unfortunately, right from the start of his nomination, Saul was subjected to unwarranted personal attacks, which were far from over.’
Omarova, 55, was attacked as soon as she was named as Biden’s pick.
Republicans sought to see his university thesis titled ‘The Economic Analysis of Karl Marx and the Theory of Revolution in Capital’, written during his time at Moscow State University.
President Biden’s choice as bank regulator came after it emerged that five Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee said they would Saulé Omarova.
Soule Omarova (Parikrama) in school number 21 where she studied in the city of Uralsk (now Oral) in Soviet Kazakhstan. Republicans have repeatedly tried to suggest that he is a communist.
She removed the reference to it from her resume after it became the subject of controversy, and DailyMail.com later revealed that the university had destroyed its only copy.
Like all children growing up in Soviet-ruled Kazakhstan, she had to join the Komsomol – Young Communists.
However, unlike all children, she rose to lead the Komsomol at its academy, according to Erken Bulgenov, a family friend at the time.
These questions were raised during a Senate hearing last month.
Under intense questioning by Republicans she was forced to deny that she was a communist.
Her presence dominated the headlines at the bizarre moment when Republican Sen. John Kennedy, demanding to know whether Omarova had ever resigned from the youth communist group, was forced to join as a young girl. Was.
“I don’t mean this with any disrespect, but I don’t know whether to call you a professor or a comrade,” he told a designated nominee.
‘I am not a communist,’ he replied. ‘I do not subscribe to that ideology. I could not choose where I was born.’
It set the tone for a poorly-tempered hearing and revealed that Omarova will have a hard time securing confirmation at a time when Biden needs all the political capital in the Senate to shepherd through his $1.75 trillion social spending package. would be required.
Omarova was erected as head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which controls assets held by more than 1,000 banks.
This is an important but often ambiguous condition. This time, however, the nominee’s background and his public status have triggered heated exchanges.
Progressive Democrats saw a regulator that would bring a tougher approach to policing banks after years of soft-touch supervision.
An exclusive new photo shows Omarova as a proud ‘young pioneer’ – the communist youth mass movement – at her Soviet school No. 21 in Uralsk, now Oral, Kazakhstan. She is wearing the movement’s red scarf in a picture from 1979-80
A copy of the register from Omarova’s school states that she was a member of the Komsomol or ‘Young Communist’ in the USSR.
But Republican critics see him as a fanatic who wants to nationalize banking.
He has focused on his early life in Kazakhstan, when he was part of the Soviet Union before immigrating to the US in 1991.
He also sought to see his college thesis on Karl Marx and suggested that he “not reject his ideas of the Soviet era,” as the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board recently put it.
His outspoken criticism of Wall Street institutions has clearly alienated even centrist Democrats.
He has advocated for transferring Americans’ financial accounts from private banks to the Federal Reserve and forcing banks to lose leverage on federal subsidies by becoming ‘non-depository lenders’.
This will reduce the stature of the institutions she is supposed to regulate.
By separating their lending function from their monetary function, the proposed reform would effectively “end banking”, Omarova wrote in an updated paper titled ‘The People’s Ledger’ in February of this year, as we do. know.
He summed it up more in the 2019 documentary film A**holes: A Theory. Omarova called Wall Street’s hedge fund-dominated culture “the quintessential a**hole industry.”
And recently a video surfaced of her saying that she wants oil and gas companies to go ‘bankrupt’.
‘If we want to settle, we want them to go bankrupt’ Climate change, Rights?’ Soviet-born Omarova said A clip that was shared online by the conservative-leaning American Accountability Foundation.
Biden nominee Soule Omarova is saying the quiet part out loud. On the oil, coal and gas industries:
“If we want to tackle climate change we want them to go bankrupt.” pic.twitter.com/luMR2HEMK9
— BidenNoms, a project of AAF (@bidennoms) November 9, 2021
She appeared to have sunk when reports surfaced that five moderate Democratic senators said they would not support her nomination.
Three members of the Senate Banking Committee—John Tester (D-Mont.) Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Kirsten Cinemas (D-Ariz.)—reported their opposition to the panel’s chairman, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). I told. , According to axios last month
They allegedly sens. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).
A White House official at the time said the administration was sticking to its choice.
“Soule Omarova is particularly qualified for the position,” the official said.
‘He’s been treated unfairly since his nomination, like it’s the McCarthy era.’
During the hearing, Senate Banking Committee ranking member Pat Tomei accused him of wanting to end America’s free market system.
“I’m sure Americans can’t wait until the Fed starts directly controlling the prices of eggs and milk and fares,” he said.
‘And this isn’t the only time Professor Omarova has expressed support for government control over wages, as she tweeted in 2019 … the pay gap. The market doesn’t always know best.”
But he had clear support from progressives such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who accused Republicans of launching a “vicious smear campaign” designed to prevent confirmation of anyone taking the big banks.
He said, ‘It’s disgusting. ‘And whoever is involved in this malicious character assassination should be ashamed of themselves.’
In a quick round of questions he gave Omarova a chance to deny the allegations against her.
‘Now one claim is that you want to nationalize the banking system,’ Warren said. ‘So let’s get this crap out of the way. Whether OCC has the power to abolish private banking and remove all consumer deposits in a public ledger?’
Omarova replied: ‘Not at all.’
Warren continued: ‘If the OCC had that power, would you support it?’
‘off course not.’
‘And are you a capitalist who believes in free markets?
‘Yes I am,’ said Omarova.
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