'You Are Just Not A Serious Person For This Job': Elizabeth Warren Shows No Mercy To Trump 'Fair Housing' Nom

Forbes Breaking News

At Thursday's Senate Banking Committee hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) questioned Craig Trainor, nominee to be Assistant HUD Secretary.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, Mr. Traynor, if you're confirmed, you'll be

00:05responsible for enforcing the nation's laws barring discrimination in housing.

00:10HUD's website says that the office you would lead, the Office of Fair Housing

00:16and Equal Opportunity, quote, works to eliminate housing discrimination and

00:21promote civil rights and economic opportunity through housing. Last year

00:26there were more than 34,000 complaints to the Fair Housing Office, the most on

00:32record in history. That suggests to me there is problem nationally with housing

00:37discrimination. Mr. Traynor, you describe yourself as a civil rights lawyer, so I

00:43just want to go through your record on civil rights. In 2021, you authored a book

00:48review entitled, quote, George Floyd and the Rise of the Rival Constitution, where

00:55you appeared to agree with arguments that our civil rights laws contributed to the

01:00rise of a, quote, rival Constitution that threatens our actual Constitution. In a

01:092022 report to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on Racial Disparities and

01:13Evictions in New York State, you wrote that while you, quote, do not doubt good

01:20faith views that racial discrimination many decades in the past somehow reveals

01:28itself today in New York's rental market, I do not share this view. Your current

01:35civil rights enforcement role at the Department of Education, you are being

01:39sued by the NAACP and other civil rights groups for advancing a, quote, legally flawed

01:46and unsupported interpretation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal

01:53Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Mr. Traynor, given your

01:58record, why should we trust that you will fulfill the explicit mission of HUD's Fair

02:07Housing Office to, quote, eliminate housing discrimination and promote civil rights? Senator,

02:15thank you for that question. I'd look at my career as a civil rights attorney who has represented

02:21hundreds upon hundreds of vulnerable New Yorkers in the worst time of their lives as being the

02:27oftentimes the only person they can talk to to help them navigate a deeply complex and at times

02:32unfair system. And that is exactly what I intend to do, is to take that experience and to evaluate

02:38complaints that come in, investigate that, and vigorously enforce the law if we find violations.

02:43Well, that's the problem that I'm trying to probe here, Mr. Traynor. You're currently being

02:49sued by civil rights groups. You seem to have come to the conclusion that housing discrimination

02:54in New York's rental market does not exist. You've raised questions about the constitutionality

03:01of our civil rights laws. Your record is not indicative of someone who will faithfully uphold

03:09the civil rights laws. Instead, it reads like somebody who is hostile to the fundamental premise

03:16of civil rights. That makes me think you are just not a serious person for this job. So,

03:24Mr. Peters, I'd like to turn to you. As the Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement,

03:30you would be on the front lines enforcing our export controls. Now, export controls are a crucial

03:36tool for ensuring that countries like China cannot access our most sensitive technologies

03:42and use them, ultimately use them against us. So, in February, Senator Hawley and I wrote

03:48to the Commerce Department to express our concern that BIS hadn't closed loopholes allowing PRC

03:57to acquire millions of advanced AI chips. Last month, Senator Banks and I wrote to NVIDIA to emphasize

04:05our concerns that its new R&D facility in Shanghai could lead to the diversion of advanced chips.

04:12Mr. Peters, do you agree that we need to impose robust safeguards to ensure that countries like Saudi

04:21Arabia and the UAE do not simply take our chips and pass them along to China?

04:28Senator Warren, thank you for your question and I appreciated the opportunity to meet with members

04:36of your staff in anticipation of this hearing. As I'm sure you're aware, BIS essentially is divided

04:42into two components. There is the enforcement side, which I hope to lead. There is also the

04:46administrative side, which has the primary responsibility for rulemaking and policy.

04:51I view my role, should I be confirmed, as committed to the aggressive enforcement...

04:57Okay, I'm sorry, but I had a very specific question here. Do you agree that we need to impose robust

05:03safeguards to ensure that countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE don't simply take our chips and

05:08then pass them along to China? I agree, Senator Warren, that we need to be committed to vigorous

05:15enforcement of export control laws. Is that a yes or is that a no?

05:20Senator Warren, I believe vigorous... Is that a yes or is that a no?

05:24Senator Warren, I understand why you would like to reduce this to a yes or no issue.

05:29Yeah, it's actually pretty simple, that we need to worry about countries like Saudi Arabia

05:34taking the chips from us and then passing them along to China. I get that we don't send the chips directly

05:40to China, but I'm very concerned about handing them to a country that in turn hands them to China,

05:45and I just want to know if you're worried about that as well. Senator Warren, transshipment of

05:51technologies is already part of our enforcement mechanism. I understand that, so can you answer

05:55this question then with a yes? I can answer that. I would be vigorous. I will aggressively enforce the law.

06:01All right, I think that I'm not going to get an answer here. Thank you both.

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