Biden Banking Nominee Faces Confrontational Senate Hearing

President Joe Biden’s controversial nominee to serve as a top banking regulator faced a heated Senate hearing on Thursday. 

The hearing comes after weeks of controversy over accusations that nominee Saule Omarova, a Cornell University law professor who was born in Kazakhstan, holds socialist or communist views. While Republican Sen. Pat Toomey accused Omarova of wanting to “nationalize the banking system,” Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown accused Republicans of “McCarthyism.” At the hearing, Omarova described some of her now-criticized prior writings as “part of an ongoing academic debate.” She also emphasized the importance of America’s private banks and criticized the old Soviet government for having “no free enterprise and no economic opportunity for people like me.”

Coverage was more common in center- and right-rated outlets on Thursday. Coverage from the right tended to be more critical of Omarova, using language like “claims they were merely academic proposals” and “GOP senators slam Biden pick.” Coverage from the left tended to be more sympathetic, saying things like “Republicans go full red scare” and “Biden’s O.C.C. pick declares her support for capitalism and community banks.”