The New York Times reports:
Mick Mulvaney, the interim director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told banking industry executives on Tuesday that they should press lawmakers hard to pursue their agenda, and revealed that, as a congressman, he would meet only with lobbyists if they had contributed to his campaign.
“We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress,” Mr. Mulvaney, a former Republican lawmaker from South Carolina, told 1,300 bankers and lending industry officials at an American Bankers Association conference in Washington. “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.”
At the top of the hierarchy, he added, were his constituents. “If you came from back home and sat in my lobby, I talked to you without exception, regardless of the financial contributions,” said Mr. Mulvaney, who received nearly $63,000 from payday lenders for his congressional campaigns.
The Times notes that since taking the job, Mulvaney has restricted access to bank data and curtailed investigations against predatory lenders.
Mick Mulvaney should resign. Today he told 1,300 bankers and lobbyists to make campaign donations to Republican lawmakers. He openly admitted to and endorsed a “pay-to-play” regime. https://t.co/zwwCTZjfq2
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) April 25, 2018
This really is one of the hallmarks of the Trump era, but had mostly been just Trump doing it – saying the inside part out loud. It’s spreading to appointees https://t.co/Zcs5u7q0Rq
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 25, 2018
This is a crime and he should be fired immediately. This isn’t small government. This is organized crime. https://t.co/EZnvGik2oY
— Jason Kander (@JasonKander) April 25, 2018
Now they just say it out loud:
“We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress,” Mulvaney to the ABA. “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.” https://t.co/trzSYNUeQY— Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) April 25, 2018