Sen. John Kennedy traded verbal blows with Saule Omarova, President Joe Biden’s nominee for top banking regulator, during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Thursday.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA): “I don’t know whether to call you professor or comrade.”
Someone off-camera: “Oh my goodness.”
Dr. Saule Omarova, Biden’s comptroller currency pick: “I’m not a communist. I do not subscribe to that ideology. I could not choose where I was born.” pic.twitter.com/CEiCWNwx2N
— The Recount (@therecount) November 18, 2021
Biden nominated Omarova, a law professor at Cornell University, to run the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates assets held by banks. Her supporters argued Omarova would ensure a fair banking system, while her critics questioned some of her academic writings, including a proposal theorizing a federal banking system that critics said would undercut private banks.
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Omarova grew up in Kazakhstan, which was in the former Soviet Union. She came to the United States as an exchange student from Moscow State University but was stranded when the Soviet Union dissolved. Omarova is now a U.S. citizen and worked as a special adviser in the Treasury Department during the George W. Bush administration.
At the hearing, Kennedy said, “You have the right to believe every one of these things, you do.”
“This is America. I don’t mean any disrespect. I don’t know whether to call you professor or comrade,” he said.
“I’m not a communist,” Omarova replied. “I do not subscribe to that ideology, I could not choose where I was born … My family suffered under the communist regime. I grew up not knowing half of my family.”
Kennedy’s remark drew reaction and criticism from others in the room, with someone off-camera saying, “Oh my goodness.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Kennedy was engaging in McCarthyism and “Red Scare tactics.”
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Omarova has a rocky path to confirmation. Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, has raised concerns about her nomination, and losing just one Democratic vote could sink her confirmation.
