Former Trump campaign head Corey Lewandowski went on Meet the Press today. The host of the show, Chuck Todd, was questioning Lewandowski on the same things everyone else on the Sunday shows had been talking about: the failure of the republican controlled Congress to repeal the ACA, chaos and personnel turnover in the White House, the inability of Trump to make progress on his agenda, etc.
Then, seemingly out of the blue, Lewandowski urged Trump to fire Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray on the ground that Cordray is running for governor of Ohio while heading the CFPB. Lewandowski seemed to have no idea what he was talking about. After whining about Cordray's supposed gubernatorial campaign, Lewandowski then complained that Cordray had just "issued a rule" that would cause a "trillion dollars of arbitration that the government is going to have to go through."
Hmmm. Where to start. A "trillion" dollars of what? As many of our readers will discern, Lewandowki was referring to the CFPB's recently-issued final rule on arbitration. That rule will not cause more money to be spent on arbitration, let alone a "trillion" dollars more.
Quite the opposite. The new rule would bar companies, in some instances, from imposing pre-dispute class-action bans laundered through contractual arbitration clauses with consumers. So, under the rule, consumers will be free in some instances to bring class actions in court despite an arbitration clause purporting to ban class actions. That is, the rule will mean somewhat less arbitration (and, in any case, not more arbitration). And then there's Lewandowski's ignorant assertion that, under the rule, the "government" would have to "go through" more arbitration. The rule regulates the conduct of private parties, not the government. (In case you're wondering, the entire federal budget for the current fiscal year is $3.65 trillion, so Lewandowski is right that spending a trillion on arbitration would be extravagant.)
Oh, and by the way, though many press reports indicate that Cordray is planning to run for Ohio governor, he has not formally announced his candidacy.
Lewandowski's performance was garbled and nonsensical. Perhaps someone should have given Lewandowski a few more facts. But perhaps, like his former boss, Lewandowski just doesn't care about facts.
Watch Lewandowski's interview here. The portion of the interview concerning Richard Cordray begins at about 1 minute and 40 seconds.
