Politics

President Biden To Withdraw Saule Omarova’s Nomination

Saule Omarova/Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

Anders Hagstrom White House Correspondent
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President Joe Biden has withdrawn Saule Omarova’s nomination to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency following revelations of her ties to communist ideology, the White House announced Tuesday.

Biden released a statement announcing that he had accepted Omarova’s request to end her nomination on Tuesday, but nevertheless criticized Republicans for their attacks against her. Republican Senators have highlighted Omarova’s alleged past membership in communist groups, as well as her past academic works, which included the thesis she wrote at Moscow State University, titled, “Karl Marx’s Economic Analysis and the Theory of Revolution in The Capital.” Omarova, a Cornell Law School professor, grew up in the Soviet Union. (RELATED: Biden Treasury Nominee Saule Omarova Was Once Arrested For Shoplifting At TJ Maxx, Police Records Show)

“Saule would have brought invaluable insight and perspective to our important work on behalf of the American people,” Biden said in a statement. “But unfortunately, from the very beginning of her nomination, Saule was subjected to inappropriate personal attacks that were far beyond the pale.”

Republican Senators demanded that Omarova release the text of her Moscow University thesis on October 13, but she refused and still has yet to produce it. In the past, Omarova has called for the U.S. to “’end banking,’ as we know it,” instead advocating for a system where Americans have government bank accounts with the Federal Reserve that would “fully replace–rather than compete with–private bank deposits.”

Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy relentlessly questioned Omarova during her hearings in the Senate, and Omarova sought to explain her communist affiliations by arguing that “you grow out of it with age.” She also stated that membership in communist groups was mandatory in the USSR’s education system, but the hearing came to a halt when Kennedy asked for proof of her withdrawal from any communist groups, online or otherwise.

“I don’t mean any disrespect, but I don’t know whether to call you professor or comrade,” Kennedy remarked.

“Senator, I am not a communist, I do not subscribe to that ideology, I could not choose where I was born, I do not remember joining any Facebook group that subscribes to that ideology, I would never knowingly join any such group,” Omarova responded.

Kennedy celebrated Omarova’s withdrawal on Twitter soon after Biden’s announcement.

Omarova’s chances of passing a Senate vote grew slim after key Democrats reportedly informed the White House in late November that they would not support her.