Senate

Warren: Trump’s Treasury pick the ‘ultimate Wall Street insider’

by Jordain Carney - 02/10/17 11:59 AM ET

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) blasted President Trump’s pick to lead the Treasury Department on Friday, calling Steve Mnuchin the “ultimate Wall Street insider.”

“If Wall Street threatens to blow up the economy again, does anyone seriously expect Mr. Mnuchin to get tough with his old buddies and tell them knock it off?” Warren asked from the Senate floor.

The Senate is expected to take a final vote on Mnuchin’s nomination on Monday night after he cleared a procedural hurdle early Friday morning, largely along party lines.

{mosads}Warren argued on Friday that Mnuchin — whom Democrats have nicknamed the “foreclosure king” — should be disqualified, accusing him of engaging in “sleazy, cruel and sometimes illegal conduct.”

“No track record of independence from Wall Street,” she said. “A history of profiting off the financial crisis by squeezing working families to the breaking point.”

She added that “each one of these should be disqualifying to serve as Treasury secretary and that should be the end of his nomination. We should be done with this.”

Democrats aren’t expected to be able to block Mnuchin’s nomination. He only needs a simple majority, and Republicans hold 52 seats.

But Democrats have blasted Mnuchin over a wave of foreclosures during his time overseeing the California-based OneWest Bank between 2009 and 2015. Mnuchin pushed back against Democrats during his confirmation hearing, arguing that he inherited bad mortgages when he bought the bank and worked to help struggling families.

The Columbus Dispatch reported last month that Mnuchin misled senators in written responses to the Senate Finance Committee about foreclosures while he was chief executive at OneWest Bank.

Warren on Friday accused Mnuchin of “flat out lying,” adding that “a person who lies to Congress shouldn’t be the country’s top economic official, period.”

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) also said on Thursday that he believes Mnuchin lied to the committee.

Meanwhile, Republicans praised Mnunchin ahead of the Friday vote, stressing that he would get confirmed despite Democratic attempts to slow down his nomination.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) called Mnuchin “brilliant” and said that Democrats are unfairly attacking him.

“I said, ‘You know, Steven, you’re going to lose a lot of money by taking this job.’ He said, ‘I don’t care.’ He said, ‘I want to serve my country,'” said Hatch, the chairman of the Finance Committee.

“I was refreshed … to the point that I’m going to help him every way I can become the greatest Treasury secretary we’ve ever had.”

Tags Elizabeth Warren Orrin Hatch Sherrod Brown