Richard Cordray, the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said Monday the fight over his successor shouldn’t descend into “name calling or partisan bickering,” as a legal battle over the position looms.

“It’s a serious legal matter, you have conflicting laws, it’s the kind of thing that should be weighed carefully, and the judge is weighing it carefully,” Cordray told CNN. “It shouldn’t be the object of name calling or partisan bickering.”