If there's one thing the Trump administration
hasn't been good at, it's everything.
But in particular, in particular,
they have sucked at filling key government jobs.
As of today, 252 top government posts
are still empty without even an nominee.
Which made it even stranger when, this week,
one position was filled with two people.
We don't know who's running
the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
On Friday President Trump named his budget director,
Mick Mulvaney, to take over from Richard Cordray.
Cordray had announced that Deputy Director Leandra English
would replace him. Well, she filed a lawsuit last night
to block the president's choice. And now a judge
may have to break the deadlock.
REPORTER: Who's gonna end up being vindicated here--
is it Mick Mulvaney and Donald Trump
or is it Leandra English?
A simple question: who's the boss?
-Who's the boss? -Who's the boss?
Oh snap, boss fight. (imitates hip-hop horn)
Although I will say the Who's the Boss? reference
doesn't really work here. I get what everyone
was trying to do, but in this case, it-it is genuinely unclear
who the boss is. Yeah. Because on the TV show,
it was obvious. Angela is the boss.
Tony works for Angela. If the roles were reversed,
it wouldn't have even been a question who the boss was.
The show would have just been called
He's the Boss, Not Her,
Thank God This Conforms to Our Gendered Perceptions
of What Bosses Are So There's No Confusion,
That's what it would have been. Anyway, anyway, uh,
the fight over the financial watchdog agency went to court.
And yesterday a federal judge ruled
that President Trump's budget director, Mick Mulvaney,
is legally in charge of the agency.
He looked at him and he said you are the captain.
Right? And, I mean, for him to go to court
to fight for this job, he must have
really loved this government agency for a long time.
REPORTER: Mick Mulvaney is not a big fan of this agency.
Take a listen to what he said about it back in 2014.
It's a wonderful example
of how a bureaucracy will function
if it has no accountability to anybody.
Um, it turns up being a joke,
and that's what the CFPB really has been,
in a-in a-in a-in a sick, sad kind of way.
Wait, he said that and then he got the job?
What was the interview like? "So, tell us what you think
about our company." "Oh, this place is trash,
"and, uh, I hate everything you stand for.
Uh, P.S. I took a dump in the waiting room. Uh..."
"Oh, so when can you start? I like it."
So, Mick Mulvaney really hates the government agency
that he now runs. Yes.
It makes you wonder.
What is it that they've done that's so terrible?
REPORTER: The CFPB was formed in 2011
as part of the response to the 2008 financial crisis.
Its mission is to oversee financial institutions,
to encourage them to make less risky decisions,
and to safeguard consumers from financial fraud.
REPORTER 2: Since 2011, the bureau has provided
nearly $12 billion in relief,
including billions in refunds to consumers harmed
by illegal banking practices.
They took money from banks and gave it back to the people?
That's not how money works.
Everyone knows it's: money goes into the banks
and then things happen and then yachts.
Come on, people.
Look, look, the truth is
the CFPB has been instrumental in keeping banking institutions
accountable for shady practices that affect many Americans.
For example, it's the reason that Wells Fargo had to pay
$185 million after ripping off customers
by opening fake bank accounts in their names.
But even more than that, the CFPB, or "Cifipb,"
helps keep banks financially stable
to prevent another recession.
But according to the Trump administration,
the real victims are the banks themselves.
REPORTER: Donald Trump tweeted over the weekend
the CFPB has been a total disaster.
"Financial institutions have been devastated
and unable to properly serve the public."
He wants me to fix it. He wants me to get it back to the point
where it can protect people without trampling on capitalism.
Financial institutions devastated?
Trampling on capitalism?
Have you seen capitalism lately?
If you scroll through capitalism's Instagram feed,
life is looking pretty good.
REPORTER: Huge profits undercut the administration's argument
that regulations have hurt the banking industry.
We have a record all-time high
for the Dow Jones Industrial Average
and also the others, as we noted--
the Nasdaq, the S&P, and the Russell.
REPORTER 2: U.S. banks are hauling in record profits.
$171.3 billion last year.
That's the third record in the past four years.
Yeah, people, Wall Street is making more money
than ever before.
And they were making money before.
Remember that movie with Leonardo DiCaprio?
The banks were making so much money that they could do this.
-(whooping) -Come on! Let's go!
ALL: One, two,
three!
(cheering)
Yeah. Now they're making even more money than that.
Goddamn, now it makes you wonder.
What are their parties like now, huh?
Now they probably pay, like, giant people
to throw them at the target, like...
And that... and that's the thing. That's the thing.
Wall Street is already living large,
while so much of America is still struggling.
And castrating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
will only make it worse.
This is one of those times
when I wish that there was a political hero,
someone who would stand up and say,
"I'm not gonna let Wall Street get away with murder."
I'm not gonna let Wall Street get away with murder.
When you cast that ballot,
just picture a Wall Street boardroom
filled with the special interests
who have been bleeding your country and your city
and every place else
and imagine the look on their faces
when you tell them, "You're fired!
Fired."
Fired!
We should make him the boss.