Angus King: Trump's not draining swamp, he's adding alligators

BY MARK HENSCH - 12/01/16 09:29 AM EST 53
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Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) says Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary pick is one of the wealthy insiders the president-elect campaigned against.

“It does strike me as an odd way of draining the swamp to bring in a new alligator from Wall Street,” King on Thursday told CNN’s “New Day” about Steven Mnuchin.

“I’m not reflexively opposed to Mr. Mnuchin, but I do think there’s an irony here of bringing someone with a history with Goldman Sachs into the top of economic policy,” added King. "I think there’s a larger issue here of who should be in charge of the American economy."

King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats and backed Hillary Clinton for president, said he would hear Mnuchin out before deciding whether to vote for his confirmation.

“I don’t know if it rises to the level of concern as far as confirmation is concerned,” he said. “I’m going to wait until the hearings and see what the testimony is and what the background is."

Mnuchin, who has never served in government, on Wednesday confirmed Trump is tapping him for Treasury secretary. The former Goldman Sachs partner previously served as national finance chairman of Trump’s presidential campaign.

Mnuchin told reporters later Wednesday that Trump wants “the most significant middle-income tax cut since [former President Ronald] Reagan.”

“This is going to be a tremendous boon to the economy,” he said at Trump Tower in New York City, calling the policy a top priority for the incoming administration.

Democrats have quickly pounced on Mnuchin’s vast fortune and ties to wealthy Wall Street firms as disqualifying.

Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Wednesday blasted Mnuchin as “just another Wall Street insider."

http://thehill.com/homenews/administ...ing-alligators