Comptroller of Currency Nominee: "Senator, I'm Not a Communist"

Saule Omarova, the president's pick to be comptroller of the currency, testified at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee. Several senators, including Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), accused her of having Marxist views. "I don't know whether to call you professor or comrade," said Kennedy. "Senator, I'm not a communist. I do not subscribe to that ideology. I could not choose where I was born," replied Ms. Omarova, currently a professor at Cornell Law School. "My family suffered under the communist regime." Ms. Omarova is an American citizen who was born in Kazakhstan, raised under Soviet Union rule, and moved to the U.S. as a college student. close