If he’s looking for a fresh start, President Trump should start with firing CFPB Director Richard Cordray, Trump advisor Corey Lewandowski said Sunday.
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Lewandowski said that Cordray is “all but running” for governor of Ohio.
Following the defeat of the healthcare bill and the firing of White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, there has been some speculation that new chief- of-staff retired Gen. John Kelly might want to make some additional changes in the administration.
Lewandowski said that should include firing Cordray.
“It’s my recommendation to the President of the United States to fire Richard Cordray, and if he wants to run for the governor of Ohio, go do it, but my concern is, you’ve got an unelected bureaucrat sitting in an office right now and I hope that the new chief of staff looks at him moving forward and saying it’s time to act decisively,” he said, according to a transcript of the program.
The comments by Lewandowski seem to imply that Kelly could fire Cordray, but that is not the case.
In fact, it’s not clear that Trump could fire Cordray without cause. That issue is currently tied up in federal court, where a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has said that the makeup of the CFPB is unconstitutional since it is governed by a single director who cannot be removed without cause.
That issue has been appealed to the full court of appeals, which has not yet ruled on it.
House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) has told Cordray that he should be fired.
Cordray reportedly is considering a run for governor in the Buckeye State and there has been speculation that Trump firing the agency director could boost his campaign.
In his comments, Lewandowski cited the CFPB’s recently release final arbitration rules as evidence of an abuse of power. He said that “It’s going to be about a trillion dollars worth of arbitration that the government’s going to have to go through now.”
It’s not clear where Lewandowski came up with that figure or what he meant by the comment.
The rule was designed to allow customers of financial services companies to join class action suits and not be subject to mandatory arbitration.
Pressed by host Chuck Todd, Lewandowski said his comments did not result from his representation of any client.
