(RepublicanReport.org) – President Joe Biden has run into trouble more than once regarding his appointments to key administration positions. Most recently, David Chipman, his pick to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco, and Explosives (ATF), had to be withdrawn after several past controversies surfaced around him. Now, it looks as though Biden’s selection for the Office of Comptroller of the Currency could be heading in the same direction.
Saule Omarova’s Checkered Past
Saule Omarova is a professor of law at Cornell Law School. She was born in the Soviet Union, in what is now Kazakhstan, and studied philosophy at Moscow State University. Omarova was on a university exchange program in Wisconsin in 1991, when the Soviet Union fell but was allowed to remain in the United States to complete her studies, earning a Ph.D. in political science.
Omarova’s upbringing in the communist USSR clearly had a lasting effect on her political outlook. She had publicly espoused some hard-left economic viewpoints, such as when she released the tweet below in 2019 congratulating the defunct Soviet Union for ensuring there was no gender pay gap there.
Until I came to the US, I couldn't imagine that things like gender pay gap still existed in today's world. Say what you will about old USSR, there was no gender pay gap there. Market doesn't always "know best." https://t.co/vvnx9DZICN
— Saule Omarova (@STOmarova) March 31, 2019
Omarova also proposed a radical overhaul of our banking system in a 2020 article, suggesting that the Federal Reserve should assume responsibility for more of the general banking functions the American people require. This would be a significant step away from the free-market structure Republicans tend to favor.
Moderate Democrats have also expressed doubts about Omarova’s views. For example, during a Senate Banking Committee hearing about her candidacy for comptroller of the currency on Thursday, November 18, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) criticized her opposition to 2018 legislation that removed restrictions on the smaller operators within the banking industry. As the Senate is evenly divided, Omarova cannot afford to lose the support of moderates like Warner if her nomination is to succeed.
Shoplifting Arrest
Not only are Saule Omarova’s political beliefs questionable, but she’s also had some troubling issues in her personal life. Police arrested her in 1995 in connection with the shoplifting of $214 worth of goods from a TJ Maxx outlet in Wisconsin. She cooperated fully with the security guard after her apprehension and offered to pay for the goods. The authorities eventually dropped the charges against her.
Is Saule Omarova the kind of person who should be occupying important federal government positions? Could Joe Biden not find someone with a less problematic background to head up the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency?
Copyright 2021, RepublicanReport.org
