The #SwampySeven
“Trump is not ‘draining the swamp.’ Nope, he’s inviting the biggest, ugliest swamp monsters in the front door, and he’s turning them loose on our government and our economy.” — Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Meet the #SwampySeven: Seven of the worst “swamp monsters” that Donald Trump has nominated for cabinet positions in order to enrich himself and is ultra-wealthy friends. From out-of-touch billionaires to racists, sexists, climate deniers as well as a Wall Street “foreclosure king,” Trump’s #SwampySeven show that his true agenda is protecting powerful elites at the expense of our health, safety, and prosperity.
CREDO members know that Donald Trump’s rhetoric about “draining the swamp” was just one more lie from a racist authoritarian desperate to gain power. But we need to make sure the gullible traditional corporate media outlets — and any struggling Americans who wanted to believe that someone would end Wall Street’s stranglehold on our democracy — realize the truth.
Get to know the #SwampySeven, and help CREDO expose and resist these nominations:
1. Jeff Sessions, Senator from Alabama — Nominee for Attorney General
Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions’ record on race is so problematic that in 1986, the Senate, controlled by his own party, rejected his nomination to be a federal judge. He is also a climate change denier who has a history of anti-immigrant extremism. His legislative record is appalling as well: Sen. Sessions has voted against immigration reform, voting rights and LGBTQ equality. He has worked to ban abortion and defund Planned Parenthood while advocating for big banks and big corporations.
Senate Democrats: Block Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general
2. Tom Price, Republican Congressperson — Nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services
Anti-woman, anti-gay Price wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, cut Medicaid, end Medicare and defund Planned Parenthood. Price will help right-wing extremists like Speaker of the House Paul Ryan end Medicare, take health insurance away from millions of people covered under the ACA, and push for drastic Medicaid cuts that could strip tens of millions of low-income families and children of their health insurance. Price has supported legislation to defund Planned Parenthood and opposed the ACA birth control benefit that gave women access to contraception without a copay, wants to allow health care discrimination against LGBTQ Americans and belongs to a fringe group of physicians who still question whether HIV causes AIDS.
Tell Senate Democrats: Block Tom Price’s HHS confirmation
3. Steve Mnuchin, Goldman Sachs alum and “Foreclosure King” — Nominee for Treasury Secretary
After leaving Goldman Sachs, Mnuchin profited off the financial crisis. His company OneWest ran a foreclosure mill responsible for nearly 40 percent of the reverse-mortgage foreclosures in the country, many of them homes of senior citizens. OneWest reportedly falsified documents to deny homeowners time to save their houses and was allegedly involved in “widespread misconduct” in California. Under Mnuchin, OneWest once changed the locks on one Minneapolis homeowner in the middle of a blizzard, and even took a 90-year-old woman’s home because she owed 27 cents.
Tell the Senate: Oppose “foreclosure king” Steve Mnuchin
4. Rex Tillerson, former CEO and Chairman of Exxon Mobil — Nominee for Secretary of State
Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin once gave Tillerson one of Russia’s highest honors, the Order of Friendship. When not befriending dictators, Tillerson has used his position and influence as CEO of the oil and gas company to promote lies and propaganda denying the role burning fossil fuels plays in heating our planet. The company he worked at and led for 41 years years — until just recently leaving with a $180 million retirement package — is currently under investigation by several state attorneys general for lying and misleading investors and the public about the risks of climate change.
Tell the Senate: Block climate-denying, friend-of-Putin Rex Tillerson for secretary of state
5. Betsy DeVos, Right-wing Billionaire — Nominee for Education Secretary
DeVos is an extreme right-wing bigot who has no relevant experience as an educator and did not attend or send her children to public school. A right-wing voucher and charter school activist, DeVos’ numerous projects include the disastrous effort to spread charters in Detroit, which failed to increase student achievement while allowing charters to operate with little accountability or oversight. She also has an appalling record on civil rights, which indicates she will be a threat to LGBTQ children, especially transgender students, who face prejudice, harassment and bullying in schools and suffer from higher rates of depression and suicide than non-LGBTQ classmates.
Senate Democrats: Betsy DeVos is not qualified to be secretary of education
6. Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma Attorney General — Nominee to Lead the Environmental Protection Agency
Pruitt is a radical climate-change denier who has repeatedly sued the EPA to block the Obama administration’s life-saving clear air and climate rules. Throughout his six years as Oklahoma attorney general, Pruitt has repeatedly used his role to do the bidding of Big Oil and other major polluters. Pruitt sued the EPA to block environmental rules, once sent a letter to the EPA that was actually written by lawyers for Devon Energy, took hundreds of thousands in campaign contributions from a “who’s who” of big polluters and falsely claimed climate science is “far from settled.” Confirming Pruitt as EPA administrator would be a nightmare scenario for the people and planet.
Sign the petition: Don’t let a climate denier run the EPA
7. Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants (Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s) — Nominee for Labor Secretary
Puzder is a longtime sexist with an utter disdain for working people — a whole lot like Trump himself. Puzder hates the minimum wage and President Obama’s reforms to increase overtime pay. His company faced lawsuits for discrimination and for not paying employees what they are owed, known as wage theft. He is a former anti-abortion activist who is most famous for his company’s sexist commercials featuring bikini-clad women. Putting Puzder in charge of the Department of Labor is like making an arsonist fire chief.
Tell the U.S. Senate: Oppose and resist anti-worker Puzder nomination
