Ads running in NV, AZ, IA, and DC target key Republican senators, urging them to reject Trump’s pick for Treasury Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 18, 2017
Contact: Kurt Walters, 202-630-0299
[email protected]
Today, Demand Progress Action, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and Allied Progress Action jointly launched a TV ad featuring Lisa Fraser, a widow whose house was foreclosed on by Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin’s bank, OneWest.
It began airing Wednesday, one day before Mnuchin’s hearing at the Senate Finance Committee. The ad targets five Republican senators and will run over 400 times in Nevada (Sen. Dean Heller), Arizona (Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain), and Iowa (Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst), and Washington, DC. Heller and Grassley are on the Senate Finance Committee.
This ad buy is part of a broader campaign to hold members of Congress across the country accountable for Trump as he betrays his voters by turning our economy over to giant corporations and Wall Street insiders at the expense of America’s working families. Local events are also being planned, and groups have been putting in thousands of calls to Congress opposing Trump’s agenda and Mnuchin’s nomination.
Demand Progress, PCCC & Allied Progress Ad Featuring Widow Kicked Out of Her Home by Steven Mnuchin’s Bank
www.RejectMnuchin.org
About the ad:
- Features the story of Lisa Fraser, a widow whose home was aggressively foreclosed on by Trump Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin’s bank OneWest, while her husband was battling terminal cancer — despite a long history of on-time payments. Full transcript below.
- The ad will air initially on Wednesday and Thursday, January 18 and 19 — the day before and day of Mnuchin’s hearing in front of the Senate Finance Committee. It will air on MSNBC, CNN, and FOX News in Washington, DC; Tucson and Phoenix, AZ; Las Vegas and Reno, NV; Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, IA.
- The ad will initially run over 400 times and the buy will expand based on online fundraising.
- The ad will launch the same day that Senator Warren is hosting a forum to hear from victims of Mnuchin’s predatory foreclosure practices. The forum will be tomorrow at 2:15pm in Washington, D.C. The forum is open to the press.
- ‘Foreclosure King’ Steven Mnuchin made millions by foreclosing on more than 36,000 homes — including a 90-year-old woman who was evicted over a 27 cent payment error. The bank he ran as CEO, OneWest, has been accused of “widespread misconduct” by the California Attorney General’s office, including falsely backdating documents, unlawfully evading tax obligations, and foreclosing without valid legal authority.
- In 2009, a New York judge called OneWest’s actions “harsh, repugnant, shocking and repulsive” and ruled against the bank in a civil case featuring the same foreclosure practices used against Fraser.
- Mnuchin has said that the purchase of OneWest was “one of the most proud aspects of [his] career” and that he’s “proud of his record at OneWest.”
- The ad links to a joint grassroots petition at RejectMnuchin.org, calling on every senator to join Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others who have said they will oppose Mnuchin’s confirmation. Grassroots members have sent in more than 660,000 petition signatures to the Senate to reject his nomination.
- Allied Progress launched ads in Arizona and Nevada on January 4, 2017 targeting Sens. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Dean Heller (R-NV) to reject Mnuchin. The ad, entitled “Best,” highlighted how former Goldman Sachs banker Mnuchin made millions of dollars off the foreclosures of thousands of family homes — including in Arizona and Nevada where the foreclosure crisis during the Great Recession was particularly horrific.
- The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Allied Progress Action, Demand Progress Action combined have over 3 million members nationwide.
Quotes from organizations behind ad:
Kurt Walters, Campaign Director, Demand Progress Action: “Lisa’s story is a powerful reminder that the tens of thousands of foreclosures Steve Mnuchin and his bank aggressively pursued are not just numbers on a spreadsheet. There are countless families who painfully remember the damage they suffered at the hands of Steve Mnuchin and OneWest. Mnuchin has shown he has little to no concern for how his decisions affect Americans in the real world. He is not fit to have so much power over our economy, and Americans nationwide, who are outraged at big banks profiting at the expense of ordinary people, will remember how their senators vote on Steve Mnuchin.”
Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of Progressive Change Campaign Committee: “Steven Mnuchin, the ‘Foreclosure King,’ made millions by taking people’s homes with no regard for anything but his own bottom line. Mnuchin is the poster child for how Trump is betraying America’s working families, including his own voters, by turning over our economy to Goldman Sachs bankers and giant corporations. Mnuchin represents corruption and he should not be running our economy, period.”
Karl Frisch, Executive Director of Allied Progress Action: “Lisa Fraser should be applauded for sharing her heartbreaking story. Unfortunately, she’s not alone. Tens-of-thousands of Americans just like her were wrongly foreclosed on by Steven Mnuchin’s bank. They lost their family homes while he lined his pockets with cash and bought expensive houses from Bel Air to the Hamptons. Mnuchin’s foreclosure mill of a bank has been accused of fraud and deception too often to count. A leaked state attorney general’s office memo accused his bank of ‘widespread misconduct’ while a judge said the bank committed ‘shocking and repulsive’ acts and its conduct was ‘unconscionable.’ This is not a man we should let anywhere near the economic policy of our nation.”
Ad Script (Video):
LISA FRASER to Camera: We lived in our house 25 years.
John got sick with cancer.Then, the bank foreclosed on us.
We did everything the bank asked. They lied to us and took our home anyway.
John spent his last days terrified I’d be homeless.
And then they kicked me out right after the funeral.
Steve Mnuchin ran the bank that committed fraud and took our home.
And now Donald Trump nominated him to run our economy as Treasury Secretary.
We can’t let that happen.
[ON SCREEN: Tell U.S. Senator Dean Heller: Reject Steve Mnuchin for Treasury Secretary, 702-388-6605, RejectMnuchin.org]
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