President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday he had accepted Saule Omarova's request to withdraw her nomination to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The Soviet-born Cornell law professor proved a controversial choice from the outset.
Republicans questioned her membership of youth communist organizations and her fiery criticism of Wall Street, but her nomination was ultimately sunk when moderate Democratic senators said they could not support her.
And she had to endure the humiliation of headlines about how she was arrested for shoplifting from T.J. Maxx in 1995.
In a statement, Biden said Omarova's background growing up under Soviet rule before arriving in the U.S. meant she had lived the American dream.
'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,' he said.
'But unfortunately, from the very beginning of her nomination, Saule was subjected to inappropriate personal attacks that were far beyond the pale.'
Omarova, 55, was under attack as soon as she was named as Biden's pick.
Republicans demanded to see her university thesis, written during her time at Moscow State University and entitled 'Karl Marx’s Economic Analysis and the Theory of Revolution in The Capital.'
President Biden's pick as bank regulator looks doomed after it emerged that five Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee said they would Saule Omarova
Saule Omarova ( circled ) at School Number 21 where she studied at Uralsk town (now Oral), in Soviet Kazakhstan. Republicans have repeatedly tried to suggest that she is a communist
She removed reference to it from her resume after it became a point of contention and DailyMail.com later revealed that the university had destroyed its only copy.
Like all children growing up in the Soviet-ruled Kazakhstan she had to join the Komsomol - the Young Communists.
Unlike all children, however, she rose to head the Komsomol at her academy, according to a family friend from the time, Erken Bulegenov.
Those questions came to a head during a Senate hearing last month.
She was forced to deny she was a communist under intense questioning by Republicans.
The headlines from her appearance were dominated by the bizarre moment when Republican Sen. John Kennedy demanded to know whether Omarova had ever resigned from the Young Communist group she was forced to join as a young girl.
'I don't mean this with any disrespect, but I don't know whether to call you professor or comrade,' he told a bemused nominee.
'I'm not a communist,' she responded. 'I do not subscribe to that ideology. I could not choose where I was born.'
It set the tone for a bad-tempered hearing and revealed that Omarova would have a tough time securing confirmation at a time when Biden needs all the political capital he can muster in the Senate to shepherd through his $1.75 trillion social spending package.
Omarova was lined up to head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (O.C.C.), which regulates the assets held by more than 1,000 banks.
It is an important but often obscure position. This time around, however, the background of the nominee and her public positions has triggered heated exchanges.
Progressive Democrats saw a regulator who would bring a tough approach to policing banks after years of soft-touch supervision.
An exclusive new photograph shows Omarova as a proud 'Young Pioneer' - the Communist youth mass movement - at her Soviet school number 21 in Uralsk, now Oral, in Kazakhstan. She is wearing the red scarf of the movement in a picture dating from 1979-80
A copy of the register from Omarova's school says she was a member of the Komsomol, or 'Young Communists' in the USSR
But Republican critics view her as a radical who wants to nationalize banking.
They have focused on her early life in Kazakhstan, when it was part of the Soviet Union, before she immigrated to the U.S. in 1991.
They also demanded to see her college thesis on Karl Marx and suggest she has not 'repudiated her Soviet-era views,' as the Wall Street Journal's editorial board put it recently.
Her outspoken criticism of Wall Street institutions has apparently also alienated centrist Democrats.
She has advocated for moving Americans' financial accounts from private banks to the Federal Reserve and for forcing banks to lose leverage on federal subsidies by becoming 'non-depository lenders.'
It would diminish the stature of the institutions she's supposed to regulate.
'By separating their lending function from their monetary function, the proposed reform will effectively “end banking,” as we know it,' Omarova wrote in a paper updated in February of this year titled 'The People's Ledger.'
She summed it up more concisely in a 2019 documentary film titled 'A**holes: A Theory.' Omarova called Wall Street's hedge fund-dominated culture a 'quintessential a**hole industry.'
And video emerged recently of her saying she wanted oil and gas companies to go 'bankrupt.'
'We want them to go bankrupt if we want to tackle climate change, right?' the Soviet-born Omarova said in a clip that was shared online by the conservative-leaning American Accountability Foundation.
Three Democratic senators reportedly told Senate Banking Committee Sherrod Brown that they could not support Omarova - (l-r) Kyrsten Sinema, Jon Tester, and Mark Warner
When reports emerged that five moderate Democratic senators said they would not support her nomination it appeared she was sunk
Three members of the Senate Banking Committee - Jon Tester (D-Mont.) Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) - told the panel's chairman Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) of their opposition, according to Axios last month
They were reportedly joined by Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).
At the time a White House official said the administration stood by its pick.
'Saule Omarova is eminently qualified for this position,' the official said.
'She has been treated unfairly since her nomination with unacceptable red-baiting from Republicans like it’s the McCarthy era.'
Opponents dragged up an police report from 1995, when she was stopped from leaving TJ Maxx in Madison, Wisconsin.
A security guard told Fox News that she put four pairs of shoes, two bottles of cologne and socks worth $214, into a large purse and hid them by covering the bag with other clothing items.
She then paid for other items at the jewelry counter but 'made no attempt to pay for the items concealed in her purse'.
When confronted, she then waived her rights and immediately offered to pay for the items.
The case was dropped under Wisconsin's first offender program.
But it all contributed to a difficult nomination process.
And during last month's hearing, Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey accused her of wanting to end America's free market system.
'I'm sure Americans can't wait until the Fed starts directly controlling prices for eggs and milk and rent,' he said.
'And this isn't the only time that Professor Omarova has expressed support for government control on wages, as she tweeted in 2019 ... her words, and I quote: "Say what you will about the old USSR, there was no gender pay gap. The market doesn't always know best."'
But she had the clear support of progressives such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who accused Republicans of embarking on a 'vicious smear campaign' designed to prevent the confirmation of someone who would take on big banks.
'It is disgusting,' she said. 'And anyone who participates in this malicious character assassination should be ashamed of themselves.'
In a quickfire round of questions she gave Omarova a chance to deny the charges against her.
'Now one claim is that you intend to nationalise the banking system,' said Warren. 'So let's just get this nonsense out of the way. Does the OCC have the power to end private banking and remove all consumer deposits to a public ledger?'
Omarova answered: 'Absolutely not.'
Warren continued: 'If the OCC did have that power, is that something you would support?'
'Absolutely not.'
'And are you a capitalist who believes in free markets?
'Yes I am,' said Omarova.
Post a Comment