May 22, 2024
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
Biden Fails to Fire FDIC Chairman for Ten Year History of Overseeing Abuse
By Rick Manning
Federal Deposit Insurance Commissioner Martin Gruenberg has announced that he is, “prepared to step down from my responsibilities once a successor is confirmed.”
Gruenberg’s announcement came after he faced withering criticism from Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Tim Scott (R-SC) and Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) over his mismanagement of sexual harassment and other gross personnel misconduct at the FDIC.
Scott’s and Ernst’s ire was raised by a devastating Report for the Special Review Committee of the Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from the law firm Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, LLP in response to years of complaints from FDIC employees about sexual harassment and personal abuse that have plagued the typically sleepy banking regulator.
The normally soft-spoken Scott confronted Gruenberg with numerous instances of egregious behavior under his watch, unequivocally stating, “Marty — you’ve heard me say this to you directly — you should resign.”
The problem with Gruenberg’s announcement is he isn’t really resigning. He is saying, if the President appoints someone to replace me and if the Senate confirms that person, then I will leave.
I think Mr. Gruenberg doesn’t fully understand his position. He is resigning for cause. Meaning, he doesn’t get to set the terms of his packing his bags.
Given the obvious fact that Gruenberg doesn’t understand the gravity of the charges against him and the need for him to leave in order to allow the Agency staff to move forward without fear of reprisals in the interim, the House and Senate committees which oversee the FDIC must have another hearing specifically on the charges levied in the Report.
Senator Scott hammered home why this is necessary when he said, “Your employees do not have confidence in you. And this is not a single incident. This spans over a decade-plus of your leadership at the FDIC.”
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) put it even more bluntly, “I would love to talk about some of the substance of the economy. But as I sit here right now, if I'm gonna be honest, I'm pissed off...I'm pissed off because of the very idea that employees suffered from racial and gender discrimination, bullying, mistreatment and harassment at the FDIC for years, and as I see in the report, not a single one resulted in a removal, reductions in paygrade, or any discipline more serious than a mere suspension.”
One specific instance of abuse detailed in the report was that supervisors of a disabled veteran FDIC employee regularly referred to him as Pirate McNasty.
Gruenberg didn’t have an answer when Scott asked him directly about how such appalling behavior could occur.
Other employees were “permitted to mock the fact that this employee used a wheelchair.”
Ernst started the bi-partisan chorus calling for Gruenberg to step down, and responded to President Biden’s refusal to fire Gruenberg, “The FDIC frat party is over, and it’s past time for President Biden to take real action. By failing to fire and immediately remove Chairman Martin Gruenberg, to ensure Democrats keep control of the FDIC’s Board of Directors, the Biden administration is putting politics over protecting women in the workplace. Gruenberg needs to go today, and everyone who perpetuated this culture of misconduct should be investigated and immediately removed from the FDIC, so public servants are focused on serving Americans, not their Animal House behavior.”
The senator had called for Gruenberg’s firing in the immediate aftermath of the Cleary Report putting it squarely in President Biden’s lap by demanding he, “… order his Department of Justice to investigate the FDIC from top to bottom, or else he is complicit in subjecting the women of the FDIC to more abuse and discrimination.”
Ernst continued, “No amount of mops could completely clean the FDIC frat house. It’s time to throw away the current leadership’s keys and permanently change the locks, so we can close the door on this chapter of abuse.”
Senator Ernst is exactly right. By not firing Gruenberg immediately, Biden broke his word given on his first day in office to his staff members that, “I will fire you on the spot” if they disrespect others.
Given the President’s intransigence and the timing games being played by Gruenberg in his contingent resignation, aided and abetted by Senate Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH), it is imperative that the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee hold hearings that specifically investigate the Cleary Special Report to give voice to those who have been abused and intimidated, pressuring the White House to erase this blot from the FDIC.
Of course, Martin Gruenberg could put this all to rest by simply doing the right thing and resigning effective yesterday.
The author is president of Americans for Limited Government.
To view online: https://townhall.com/columnists/rickmanning/2024/05/22/biden-fails-to-fire-fdic-chairman-for-ten-year-history-of-overseeing-abuse-n2639362
Video: The Betrayal of America: Globalists’ Agenda Exposed
To view online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tv6e4wtKhA
Older White Liberals Who Favor Abortion Remain Biden’s Biggest Supporters – He is losing Everywhere Else
Manzanita Miller
New polling from the New York Times / Siena College reveals that President Joe Biden’s base in battleground states continues to dwindle, leaving a sliver of the support he relied on in 2020. We have extensively covered the fact that polling reveals a double-digit decline in support among key groups of swing voters, but the latest Times poll drives that point home even further.
According to a breakdown of voters who plan to support Biden in November, current Biden supporters represent a fraction of the relatively diverse base Biden relied on in 2020. The data shows current Biden loyalists are older, whiter, and more abortion-driven compared to the voter population as a whole. Biden deserters are younger, more diverse, and more focused on the economy and immigration. Deserters are also more likely to glean their views from non-mainstream news sources, including TikTok and the Joe Rogan podcast, according to the data.
According to the Times poll, Biden supporters have a brighter view of life in general compared to those who plan to cast their votes elsewhere in November. Eighty-six percent of likely Biden voters say they are somewhat or very satisfied with “the way things are going” in their lives, compared to 63 percent of likely voters of former President Donald Trump, a 23-point difference.
Biden supporters are also out of step with the rest of the country in terms of policy priorities. While the most important issue to most Americans (21 percent) is the economy followed by immigration (12 percent), the number one issue to Biden voters is abortion (20 percent) and then the economy (12 percent). What’s more, just two percent of Biden voters prioritize immigration compared to 12 percent of the general population.
Voters who claim abortion is their number one issue are far more likely to be planning to vote for Biden. Those who say abortion is the largest factor in their vote choice in November (11 percent of those polled) plan to support Biden by 17 points (20 percent to three percent).
On the flip side, those who prioritize the economy and immigration are much more likely to support Trump according to the poll. Among voters who prioritize the economy (21 percent of those polled), Trump beats Biden by 18 points (30 percent to 12 percent). Among those who prioritize immigration (12 percent of those polled), Trump beats Biden by 19 points (21 percent to two percent).
Trump also leads Biden by wide double digits when it comes to handling both issues. Voters say by 22 points Trump would handle the economy better than Biden in the current poll. In last month’s Times poll, which asked voters to rank both candidates on handling immigration, voters said they disapproved of Biden’s handling of immigration by 32 points but narrowly approved of Trump’s handling of immigration by three points.
According to a breakdown of the Times data on Biden loyalists compared to Biden defectors, voters who do not support Biden are highly economically driven, with 71 percent of Biden defectors compared to just 16 percent of Biden loyalists saying the economy is currently in poor condition. In addition, 29 percent of Biden defectors compared to 15 percent of Biden loyalists say inflation and the economy are the reasons behind their vote choice in November.
According to the Times data, Biden defectors are more likely to be young, with over half (51 percent) being under the age of 45, while only a third of Biden loyalists are under age 45. Biden defectors are also more likely to say immigration is the reason for their vote choice (11 percent) compared to those who remain loyal to Biden (one percent).
Who are Biden’s core supporters? According to the data, those who remain loyal to Biden are much more likely to believe Trump is responsible for the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, with a full 84 percent of Biden loyalists saying Trump is responsible for overturning Roe compared to 49 percent of those who plan to desert Biden in November.
Biden loyalists are also more likely to be white (67 percent) compared to those who plan to desert him (42 percent). Those who remain loyal to Biden also say they want to bring politics “back to normal” (65 percent) compared to those who plan to desert Biden (38 percent).
This latest set of battleground state polling reveals that Biden voters are wildly out of step with the rest of the population when it comes to priorities. Biden supporters tend to have a rosier view of the economy and of the way their own lives are going and focus their political might on the issue of abortion. In contrast, a wide majority of Americans are focused on the economy and immigration.
This current political landscape is significantly different from 2020, when battling the covid pandemic was a priority for most Americans, regardless of their political inclinations. Now, the two issues that voters say they prioritize the most, are issues that Trump has a wide advantage over Biden on.
Manzanita Miller is the senior political analyst at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2024/05/older-white-liberals-who-favor-abortion-remain-bidens-biggest-supporters-he-is-losing-everywhere-else/