Democrats seek Biden's withdrawal from Senate Banking Committee

Democrats seeking the president Biden to withdraw his nominees for pending candidates, which have expressed support for calls to defund the police or publicly called law enforcement entities in the past.

In a letter to Biden, the ranking member Paul Schwartz, R-Pa. and his GOP colleagues noted that two nominees scheduled to be considered by the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday have made troubling statements about law enforcement officials

The senators say Biden should pull his nominations to demonstrate his administration is truly serious about distancing itself from radical anti-police movements amid surging crime rates in major cities.

Mr. Greene and Ms. Gordon's statements calling police officers pathetic and advocating for defunding the police are deeply disappointing and call into question their fitness to serve in senior positions in the federal government, the senators wrote. Each time police officers put themselves in harm's way to protect us, I think that they are the most effective. They deserve to be maligned — not supported... by Federal officials.

Greene and Gordon are nominated for posts in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. If confirmed, Greene would serve as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at HUD, while Gordon would serve as Assistant Secretary for the Office of Housing and commissioner of the Federal Housing AdministrationHousing Administration.

Aside from Toomey, other notable signators on the letter include Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N. C. and Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.

The senators pointed to a June 2020 article Greene co-authored for the Urban Institute in which he argued that too many families of color live in neighborhoods suffering from disinvestment, deprived of quality services and amenities and threatened by overpolicing.

The lawmakers also cited a post that appeared to have been deleted from Greene's Twitter account in which he wrote, no more money for the police.

Additionally, the lawmakers cited a letter written by Gordon in July 2020 while she served as president of the National Community Stabilization Trust, where they assert she argued police departments were systemically racist.

Republican lawmakers have long argued that calls among progressive Democrats to decrease police budgets following mass protests against racism contributed to a spike in crime rates in major cities.

The Biden Administration attempted to dissociate itself from the defund the police movement, releasing an anti-crime plan earlier this year that would allow local governments to use COVID - 19 relief funds to hire more police officers, among other measures.

The GOP members of the banking committee were critical of Biden's decision to back Kristen Clarke for a key role in the Justice Department earlier this year despite her public support to reduce police funding. Clarke was confirmed as her party-line candidate earlier in the year by a party source.

The decision to nominate individuals with troubling anti-police positions, such as Ms. Clarke, Mr. Greene and Ms. Gordon, undermines the credibility of your administration's claim to support America's law enforcement officers, the lawmakers said.