President Trump’s pick for acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Mick Mulvaney, joked Monday that he’s not going to “set the place on fire or blow it up.”
“I had a chance to walk through with a lot of folks here who had not been through transition, what they should expect. They should expect that this agency will stay open. Rumors that I’m going to set the place on fire or blow it up or lock the doors are completely false,” Mulvaney said.
Controversy over who is actually in charge of the CFPB has swirled all day Monday. As he resigned last week, former agency director Richard Cordray appointed Leandra English as the deputy director, which her supporters say makes her acting director. Trump, meanwhile, named Mulvaney in charge, a decision affirmed by the CFPB’s own general counsel.
Mulvaney, who is also the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, previously sponsored legislation as a member of the House to eliminate the CFPB and has called it a “sick, sad” joke.
