Democrats slam Mulvaney over appointee's racially charged blog posts
By KATY O'DONNELL 10/03/2018 04:53 PM EDT Updated 10/03/2018 05:40 PM EDT
Senate Democrats blasted Mick Mulvaney, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, for giving a top job to a political appointee who has admitted to writing racially incendiary blog posts in the past.
In a letter to Mulvaney today, 13 Democrats, led by Senate Banking ranking member Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), described Eric Blankenstein, the associate director overseeing supervision, enforcement and fair lending, as “one of your hand-selected political appointees.”
Blankenstein wrote in the 2004 posts that the use of racial slurs isn’t necessarily racist and suggested that many hate crimes are hoaxes. The issue has roiled the consumer bureau since it was uncovered by The Washington Post last week, with the head of the employees' union calling for him to be fired.
The Democratic lawmakers demanded to know why he was hired in the first place.
“It is unclear whether his appointment is due to a failure to investigate Mr. Blankenstein’s background prior to his appointment, Mr. Blankenstein withholding information from you and the CFPB, or an informed decision on your part to ignore his public comments,” they wrote.
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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/03/mick-mulvaney-senate-democrats-828168
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