It appears Republican's obstruction and their obvious interest in only looking out for the wealthiest in America has gotten so blatant that even Fox's Chris Wallace is calling them out on it. Here he is on Fox News Sunday giving RNC Chairman Reince Priebus a hard time for how it looks to the public for Republicans to have blocked both the nominations of Elizabeth Warren and the recently recess appointed Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Priebus' response of course was to punt on the question and start attacking President Obama instead and Wallace didn't push him to ever actually give him an answer after his little rant on the recess appointment.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz got a chance to respond and pointed out that while it is true that the Democrats started these pro forma sessions to try to stop some pretty egregious George W. Bush recess appointments, they never used them to do what Republicans are doing now, which is to try to circumvent a department that was voted into law from even being capable of functioning and that Wallace's points about them protecting the wealthy were spot on.
Regardless of how things iron out in the courts over the recess appointments, it's not a good day for Republicans when even Chris Wallace is pointing out that you're looking out for the rich and don't care about protecting Americans from predatory lenders.
Transcript via Fox.
WALLACE: OK. All right. Let's Chairman Priebus -- Chairman Priebus, let's move on. We don't need to go back to the 2008 election. The president says and, you know, this is one of the lines that he's going to use in the general election -- that he is looking out for the middle class while Republicans are protecting the wealthy.
WALLACE: This week, Mr. Obama made a recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Now, Chairman, I understand that the GOP has problems with this, but doesn't your party run the risk of looking like you are more concerned about protecting predatory lenders and debt collectors than you do protecting consumers?
PRIEBUS: Well, there's two different issues here, Chris. I mean, there's one issue which is the agency itself, and Dodd-Frank and that debate. But I think what --
WALLACE: But if I may. But if I may, and I -- if I may, sir -- and I also interrupted Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz -- the fact is, the Republicans have been blocking appointing somebody to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for months.
PRIEBUS: Well, here's the deal, there are rules and there is a Constitution. You know, if you want --
WALLACE: No, no. But the party blocked Elizabeth Warren first and Richard Cordray second. Long before the recess appointment was made.
PRIEBUS: But, look, the president -- but, Chris, the president has to live within the rules and within the confines of something called the United States Constitution. Now, he may not like it, but the reality is, is that this president is making -- they are not even recess appointments, but he's making appointments when the Senate is not in recess.
This is all about -- this is another chapter. I'm not saying that we're going to win an election on this issue. But when it comes to power, when it comes to the growth of government, this president takes the cake. He gets the blue ribbon.
And this is just one more chapter in Barack Obama's book of trampling on the Constitution, on growing a government that we already can't afford, and he doesn't seem to want to stop. That's what --
WALLACE: OK. Let me -- Chairman, let me give Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz a chance.
The fact is, the Democrats, who came up with this idea of these pro forma sessions to block George W. Bush for making recess appointments. Wouldn't you be howling if Bush made this kind of appointment, during a recess appointment and was ignoring Congress the way Barack Obama is now?
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: What we are howling about on behalf of the American people is what -- is the basic premise of your -- exactly what your question was, is that the Republicans didn't question Richard Cordray's credentials, didn't question that he was qualified. They simply don't like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. So, as a result -- because they have no interest in protecting consumers, they refused to bring his -- to allow his nomination to come up for a vote.
President Obama has allowed that process to go on for long enough and he went to bat for consumers, used his authority to recess-appoint Richard Cordray so that the Financial Consumer Protection Bureau can get up and running. And, quite frankly, what the Republicans are trying to do is used a pro forma process to try to block his nomination and his appointment. That's unfair and it's anti --
WALLACE: I want to move on to something else.
PRIEBUS: You know what?
WALLACE: Wait, wait. Let me -- Chairman, let me move on.
