FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 30, 2017
Contact: Kurt Walters, 202-630-0299
[email protected]
Today, Senate Democrats objected to unanimous consent on the committee vote for “foreclosure king” Steve Mnuchin’s nomination to become Treasury Secretary, delaying the vote.
The Senate Finance Committee vote had previously been scheduled to occur at 6 pm tonight.
Demand Progress released the following statement, attributable to Campaign Director Kurt Walters:
“Senate Democrats should be applauded for their bold move to stand up for ordinary Americans – like the ones Steve Mnuchin walked all over while running the “foreclosure machine” OneWest Bank – by refusing unanimous consent on Mnuchin’s committee vote.
“Mnuchin has a history of getting rich at the expense of working Americans. He and Donald Trump want to make that the norm, promising to attack the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms reining in abuse by big banks – a direct violation of Trump’s campaign promises to take on Wall Street.
“Donald Trump’s recent unconstitutional actions prove beyond a doubt that he is as unfit to be president as many feared he would be. Democrats should meet that truth not with accommodation but with resistance, using the legal and procedural powers at their disposal.
“Senate Democrats seem to be finding their spines. Tomorrow morning, we will see if Senate Republicans can locate their principles and vote against foreclosure profiteer Steve Mnuchin.”
Since Mnuchin’s late November nomination as Trump’s presumptive Treasury Secretary pick, Demand Progress and its Rootstrikers project focused on Wall Street accountability have:
- Organized more than 600,000 petition signatures against Steve Mnuchin for Treasury Secretary and Trump’s entire “cabinet of hate and Wall Street greed.”
- Organized their members and coalition partners to drive in more than 41,000 phone calls opposing Mnuchin’s Treasury nomination to Senate offices.
- Partnered with Allied Progress Action and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee to launch a 6-figure television ad targeting both Democratic and Republican senators in Nevada, Arizona, Iowa, Virginia, Delaware, Colorado, Missouri, Florida, and DC urging senators to reject Mnuchin’s Treasury nomination and featuring Lisa Fraser, a widow whose house was foreclosed on by Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin’s bank, OneWest.
Additional background on Mnuchin:
- Mnuchin made a fortune off the foreclosure crisis. He ran a bank called a “foreclosure machine” for foreclosing on well over 36,000 homes — and later sold it for $3.4 billion.
- Mnuchin would run the Treasury Department to benefit Wall Street. He’s promised to attack the Dodd-Frank reforms reining in abuse by big banks, calling it is his “number one priority on the regulatory side.”
- Mnuchin’s bank foreclosed on families using techniques so aggressive a federal judge called them “harsh, repugnant, shocking and repulsive.”
- A leaked state attorney general’s office memo revealed evidence of “widespread misconduct” by Mnuchin’s bank, OneWest, and thousands of illegal actions like forging documents.
- Mnuchin is the ultimate Wall Street insider. He spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs, peddling the types of risky derivatives that caused the financial crisis, and left with $46 million. His father was a Goldman banker, too.
- Until December 2016, Mnuchin sat on the board of CIT Group, a bank that’s been designated “too big to fail” and lost $2.3 billion in taxpayer bailout dollars. He earned $4.5 million a year there.
- Another Mnuchin company, Relativity Media is apparently undergoing federal investigation. Mnuchin resigned as Co-Chair of Relativity Media under shady circumstances – cashing out with $50 million just two months before Relativity declared bankruptcy.
- Mnuchin and his family pocketed $3.2 million from the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme and never returned a dime to victims of Madoff’s crimes.
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