Robert Weissman is a staunch public interest advocate and activist, as well as an expert on a wide variety of issues ranging from corporate accountability and government transparency, to trade and globalization, to economic and regulatory policy. As the President of Public Citizen, Weissman has spearheaded the effort to loosen the chokehold corporations and the wealthy have over our democracy. He has also has been a strong voice in the fight against Wall Street greed and recklessness and has expanded Public Citizen’s work to curb climate change and push for a single-payer, Medicare-for-all health care system. Last month, they released a detailed report entitled “Corporate Impunity: ‘Tough on Crime’ Trump is Weak On Corporate Crime.” And just this week, they have released a scathing report on the judicial record of Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.

“The comments from people who are in charge of agencies are just astounding. They think their job is to help their companies. The Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, said, ‘Government should make things easier for our customers whenever possible.’ That means to agri-business, not consumers. Ben Carson said that effective enforcement of the Fair Housing Act under President Obama was ‘ridiculous.’ Elaine Chao at the Department of Transportation said, ‘We don’t believe that we, the government know best’ as she was talking to industry about regulations. ‘We’re partners with you’ instead. Mick Mulvaney, who is moonlighting as the current acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – which he’s trying to destroy – when he came in said that he would no longer ‘push the envelope’ when it comes to enforcement, that the agency is ‘supposed to work for everyone,’ the people who get credit cards but also the people who give out credit cards, the ones who are being predated on by payday lenders, but also the people who make the payday loans. It’s just astonishing.” Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen on their recent report entitled “Corporate Impunity.”