You get investigated. You get investigated. You get investigated. Democrats are opening up investigations like Oprah used to hand out free stuff to her audience.
The latest call for an investigation into the Trump administration comes from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who wants an investigation into the delay of the $20 bill that replaces Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman.
In a letter sent Wednesday to the Treasury Department’s Inspector General, Eric M. Thorson, Schumer asked for an investigation into “the circumstances surrounding” the department’s “decision to delay redesign of the $20 note featuring the portrait of Harriet Tubman, including any involvement by the White House in this decision.”
Schumer noted that in 2016, then-Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew announced the redesign would be released in 2020. Last month, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the redesign was delayed until 2028 so that the bill could be redesigned to address “counterfeiting issues.”
“The primary reason we’ve looked at redesigning the currency is for counterfeiting issues,” Mnuchin said at the time, according to The Hill. “Based upon this, the $20 bill will now not come out until 2028. The $10 and the $50 will come out with new features beforehand.”
In his letter, Schumer suggests President Donald Trump may have been the real reason the bill was delayed since during the 2016 campaign he praised Jackson and suggested replacing him on the $20 bill was “pure political correctness.”
Schumer wrote that it was “simply not credible that with all the resources and expertise of the U.S. Treasury and Secret Service, a decade or more could be required to produce a new $20 bill. If the Empire State Building could be completed in 13 months almost 100 years ago, the 21st century Treasury Department ought to be able to get this job done in a reasonable period of time.”
Schumer neglected to reflect on the slowness of modern government and take into consideration that the Empire State Building could not be built in 13 months in today’s society due to permit restrictions and regulations.
Schumer also asked the inspector general to “review the involvement of other participants in the interagency process related to the redesign – including the Secret Service, Federal Reserve, and the White House – to ensure that political considerations have not been allowed to infect the process for designing American currency.”
Trump suggested in 2016 that Jackson remain on the $20 bill and that a new official note — a $2 bill — feature Tubman.
Earlier this week, The Daily Wire reported that Bureau of Engraving and Printing Director Len Olija wrote in a statement that suggestions the delay was for political reasons were false.
“To keep our currency safe and secure, it is unwise to give counterfeiters a look at a potential future note far in advance of a note going into circulation,” Olija wrote. “Additionally, if the concept of a note that was made public by the government were to change during that lengthy amount of time, it would create confusion in the global marketplace, further aiding counterfeiters.”
Further, Olija debunked claims from The New York Times that the new note was already designed.
“The illustration published by the New York Times was a copy of an old Series note with the signatures of former officials, with a different image imposed on it,” Olija concluded. “It is not a new $20 note, as incorrectly stated by the New York Times, in any way, shape or form. The facsimile contained no security features or offset printing included on currency notes. There is nothing about that illustration that even begins to meet technical requirements for the next family of notes.”
Monica Crowley, spokeswoman for Mnuchin, said the department’s timetable is consistent with what the former administration required.