Senate Democrats are demanding that Housing Secretary Ben Carson justify his hiring of Eric Blankenstein, a former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau official who was forced to apologize and resign his position over racist past writings.
Carson hired Blankenstein last month to work in the general counsel’s office at the Department of Housing and Urban Development on Ginnie Mae, a government corporation that guarantees mortgage-backed securities. Blankenstein, who was brought to the CFPB by Mick Mulvaney seemingly for his commitment to destroying it, was forced out of the bureau after his racist and sexist statements spanning years and years were exposed. At the CFPB, he had been put in the position of enforcing the nation's fair-lending laws—making sure that disadvantaged communities and people of color weren't being denied loans and credit or being cheated by financial service companies. Because of course you put a person with a history of "questioning whether the n-word was racist and expressing skepticism about hate crimes" in that job.
And of course a racist lands on his feet in the Trump administration, in an agency that is also supposed to be charged with ending housing discrimination. Democrats want an explanation from Carson. "Mr. Blankenstein has a history of racist and sexist statements that appear to have contributed to his recent resignation from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau," Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio wrote in a letter signed by five of his colleagues. So how, with that history, did he get this job, they want to know. Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey was more blunt about it in a statement. "Any normal administration would have sent Eric Blankenstein and his reprehensible, racist and sexist opinions packing a long time ago," he said. "Instead the Trump administration is handing this bigot a six-figure, taxpayer-funded job as legal counsel for one of the agencies charged with fighting discrimination and enforcing fair housing laws."
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada said, "His rehiring by this administration is reprehensible, calls into question the judgment of Ginnie Mae's political leadership, and once again signals to people of color and women that this administration doesn't have their interests at heart." Yes, that's stating the glaringly obvious. The glaringly obvious—that we have a white supremacist would-be dictator in the White House—needs to be said. Because that racism is infecting every part of our government.