Senior Trump-Appointed CFPB Official Who Supported Discrimination and Doesn’t Acknowledge Existence of Racism, Not Fit for the Job
Sept. 28, 2018
Senior Trump-Appointed CFPB Official Who Supported Discrimination and Doesn’t Acknowledge Existence of Racism, Not Fit for the Job
Statement of Remington A. Gregg, Counsel for Civil Justice and Consumer Rights, Public Citizen’s Congress Watch Division
Note: The Washington Post reported Wednesday that a senior Trump appointee, Eric Blankenstein, who oversees the enforcement of laws against financial discrimination at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has claimed that a majority of hate crimes in the U.S. were made up and questioned whether the use of the “N-word” suggested that a person is racist.
We have yet another vile development from the Trump administration. A man who refers to the “N-word” in communications, questions hate crimes as hoaxes and has a generally bonkers view of hate crime laws shouldn’t be in charge of protecting consumers against discrimination.
The agency under acting head Mick Mulvaey has been gutting enforcement against corporate wrongdoers by refusing to hold predatory payday lenders accountable for bad acts, sidelining the office that protects students, and scaling back enforcement of the law aimed at protecting individuals in the military. So it should come as no surprise that Mulvaney would install a man with such abhorrent views in a position to continue to put the brakes on the agency’s enforcement responsibilities.
To add insult to injury, for the privilege of weakening our consumer protection laws, taxpayers pay Blakenstein a cool $259,000.We are all worse off for it. Blankenstein is not fit for the job.
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