Sen. Bill Hagerty: Biden administration wants to 'starve out industries that are politically out of favor with the Democrats'
Republican senator expresses serious concern about treasury pick Saule Omarova after key hearing on Capitol Hill
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., on Thursday expressed opposition to Saule Omarova, President Biden's controversial nominee to head, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, telling "America Reports" that her performance during the Senate Banking Committee's hearing raised more questions about her fitness for the role.
SEN. BILL HAGERTY: My concerns are much more current than her past may have been growing up in Soviet Russia, being schooled in Moscow. That’s not my concern nearly as much as her response to my question today. When I queried if she thinks rising gas prices are bad for Americans, she had a difficult time answering that question. She just needs to come to Tennessee. You ask a single mother in Memphis who is filling up her gas tank whether it’s harmful to have gas up $1.50 a gallon. This is part and parcel of the Biden strategy to raise gas prices in America. '
They are using this as a justification to make what would not otherwise survive market-based competition. These [are] green energy investments to increase the price of gas artificially, to disrupt the economy so that they can get better cost justification for their Green New Deal investments and she would use the office…to make this a lot worse.
…
This is a movement we have already seen before. Just go back to the Obama administration – "Operation Choke Point." What we are seeing is an opportunity for them to deploy exactly the same strategy. In the Obama administration, they used "Operation Choke Point" to starve out industries that were politically out of favor with the Democrats. Today, it’s the oil and gas industry. That’s what she’s talking about starving out, and she would be responsible as comptroller of the currency for an army of 2,400 bank examiners -- all of them under her control with a billion-dollar war chest who could go into banks and put pressure on them to stop lending to any industry that they determine are out of favor.
WATCH THE FULL VIDEO BELOW:
Fox News First
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can opt-out at any time.