Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, wants to see a top White House official resign after making what some are calling inappropriate comments regarding pay-to-play.
Brown told CNN on Thursday morning that recent remarks Mick Mulvaney made to a group of 1,300 bankers about talking to lobbyists in exchange for accepting campaign donations from them were improper and he should resign from his posts as director of the Office of Management and Budget and interim director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
"When you make those kinds of comments and you're trying to represent a president who said drain the swamp and you go to 1,300 bankers and say lobby us, weaken the consumer bureau, you really should leave both jobs," Brown said.
Brown confirmed he is circulating a letter that will demand information from Mulvaney about who he has met with in his White House role.
"Is he meeting with payday lenders all day long, bankers with an agenda to eliminate a consumer branch that he is charged to represent?" said Brown, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee. "He really should step aside."
Mulvaney addressed the American Bankers Association conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday and referenced his time as a Republican congressman from South Carolina.
"We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress," he said. "If you're a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn't talk to you. If you're a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you."
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