May 25, 2011

House GOPer Blasted for Calling Elizabeth Warren a Liar

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You won’t find more of a spectacle on Capitol Hill than what happened in a House hearing Tuesday featuring consumer watchdog Elizabeth Warren, the White House aide building the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

At the hearing, House Republicans, and Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) in particular, accused Warren of lying to Congress about her role in the settlement negotiations between mortgage servicing companies and state attorneys general. Warren has repeatedly described her role as an advisory one: “We gave advice when asked.” House GOPers, however, continue to claim that she has unduly influenced the settlement talks, and then lied to Congress about the extent of her role in previous testimony.

Then the hearing got really ugly. At around 2:15 p.m., Warren said her time was up and she had to go, based on what McHenry’s staff had told her staff. McHenry said that wasn’t the case, and then accused Warren of lying again, this time about the hearing schedule.

Here’s the exchange:

It’s worth noting that Patrick McHenry questioning someone else’s integrity is as hypocritical as it gets. This is, after all, the guy who created a phony realty company before his initial run for Congress so that he could later say he was the “one small businessman in the race,” as the Washington Monthly reported.

Now McHenry’s facing some blowback for his specious attacks on Warren. Just take a look at his official Facebook page. You’ll find comment after comment demanding McHenry apologize and ripping him for calling Warren a liar. Here are just a few:

“Mr. McHenry, you should be ashamed for your behavior. You are a disgrace to NC, the House of Representatives, and human kind in general.”

“Just because you don’t agree with someone politically, does not allow you to treat them disrespect. Ms. Warren carried herself with dignity and showed you respect. You, on the other hand, treated her with hostility and disrespect.”

“Your treatment of an incredibly smart and strong woman was reprehensible. Ms. Warren represents the interests and people of this country better than you do. I despise that I had to “like” your page so I could tell you off. I’ll be happy to financially contribute to your opponent this cycle.”

“This is your ‘macaca’ moment, Congressman. Enjoy!”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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