Tuesday, February 23, 2010

John McCain's TARP claim 'cowardly'

Rep. Barney Frank on Monday night called Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) “cowardly” for suggesting that he was misled by then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in order to get his support for the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Asked about McCain’s claim by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Frank said it was a “pathetically, obviously untrue statement .” “It’s an invention,” the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee said of McCain’s claim. “Look, he’s got a very conservative primary opponent. He voted for the TARP money. He clearly supported it. And he’s now just trying to reinvent history, but it’s unseemly for a man like that to blame other people, because he changed his mind for political reasons.”

“Those of us who were there know it,” the Massachusetts Democrat said of the meeting Paulson and Bernanke had with lawmakers to request the funds. “I`ve gone beyond being disappointed for John McCain to feeling sorry for him.”
“For him to blame Paulson or Bernanke is cowardly,” Frank continued. “This was Bush. Paulson and Bernanke were acting for [former President] George [W.] Bush.”


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