Remember yesterday, when GOP Sen. John Kennedy read aloud over some of Comptroller of the Currency nominee Saule Omarova’s communist bona fides and then politely confessed that he wasn’t sure whether to refer to Omarova as “professor” or “comrade”?
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA): “I don’t know whether to call you professor or comrade.”
Someone off-camera: “Oh my goodness.”
Dr. Saule Omarova, Biden’s comptroller currency pick: “I’m not a communist. I do not subscribe to that ideology. I could not choose where I was born.” pic.twitter.com/CEiCWNwx2N
— The Recount (@therecount) November 18, 2021
Well, many of Kennedy’s critics likened it to McCarthyism. Others went further and deemed it racist.
And then there were people like Resistance hero Alexander Vindman, who seem to believe that Kennedy’s remarks were a combination of both:
Sir, have you no shame?
This is an insult to anyone with an accent, anyone who fled communism, anyone born abroad. Your own ancestors were slurred for being born in elsewhere, were they not?
Abhorrent. I’ll say what she could not… to hell with you! https://t.co/En6cam1DHU
— Alexander S. Vindman (@AVindman) November 18, 2021
See @SenJohnKennedy in tyrannical regimes you are forced to join organization. Much like Trump demanding followers carry Trump membership cards to prove loyalty.
Also, this is pic of me and my brothers has an image of Lenin on the wall. Any questions? pic.twitter.com/pT59XKb85L
— Alexander S. Vindman (@AVindman) November 19, 2021
We have a few questions. Namely, what does being forced to join a communist organization have to do with Saule Omarova, a proud Lenin scholar who has dedicated much of her professional life to waxing poetic about the joys of communism?
She's a communist, you idiot. Try reading what she's said over the last 12 months. Peddle your sanctimony somewhere else. https://t.co/AnFZoUq1xD
— Byron A. Sanders (@ByronPreserve1A) November 19, 2021
And for what it’s worth:
Unlike Ms. Omarova, my parents —who also grew up in the USSR— never joined the Communist Party.
It cost them jobs and opportunities, but they had principles.
Cast a skeptical eye on the “I had no choice but to join the party” excuse.
Many honorably refused…
— Gabriella Hoffman (@Gabby_Hoffman) November 19, 2021
Many indeed fled from communism.
But Saule Omarova didn’t flee communism; she ran into its waiting arms and stayed there.
Ok, comrade https://t.co/oohp3TERWr
— Joe Pilot, MD (@JoeSilverman7) November 19, 2021
