Trump says Stephen Moore is withdrawing from consideration for Fed

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that conservative commentator Stephen Moore has withdrawn as a candidate for the Federal Reserve, a stinging blow to the president’s efforts to install political loyalists at the central bank.

“Steve Moore, a great pro-growth economist and a truly fine person, has decided to withdraw from the Fed process,” Trump tweeted. “Steve won the battle of ideas including Tax Cuts…and deregulation which have produced non-inflationary prosperity for all Americans. I’ve asked Steve to work with me toward future economic growth in our Country.”

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Another Fed pick, Herman Cain, also withdrew from consideration recently. The president had declared both men to be his preferred choices for the Fed even before the White House and the FBI had completed vetting them, but both faced stiff opposition from Republicans in the Senate.

Moore, who like Cain was never formally nominated, is withdrawing after a chorus of GOP senators expressed doubt that he would be able to secure enough votes to be confirmed, given his past comments that demeaned women. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), a member of the GOP leadership, raised the most emphatic criticism, calling some of his previous writings “ridiculous.”

Senate Republicans were told that Moore would be pulled on Thursday morning, one senator said.

Trump’s selection of two overt political allies had set off alarms among lawmakers that they would erode the Fed’s political independence by focusing on the president’s reelection prospects rather than on what’s best for the long-term health of the economy. Moore has consistently defended the president on TV and in his writings, and Cain formed a super PAC last year to promote Trump’s agenda.

That concern was stoked, in part, by Trump’s relentless attacks on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and the central bank since last July for pursuing a campaign of interest rate hikes, a policy that has been all but abandoned.

But both Moore and Cain stepped down mainly because of issues with women; Cain has been accused of sexual harassment in the past, and Moore has written disparagingly of women.

In a March 2002 column, Moore criticized the NCAA for allowing a woman to referee a college men’s basketball game. “How outrageous is this?” he wrote. “Is there no area in life where men can take vacation from women?”

In 2014, he wrote that women earning more than men could be “disruptive to family stability,” and in 1994, he blasted the Violence Against Women Act, a tool aimed at combating and prosecuting sexual assault and other violent crimes, as “the most objectionable pork” in a crime prevention bill.

Moore said on Sunday that he was “apologetic” and “embarrassed” by some of his past writings, some of which he says were intended as jokes, but did not elaborate.

Republican senators had initially spoken warmly about Moore, who has long been a presence in the GOP, particularly as a fierce advocate for lower taxes. A founder of the conservative Club for Growth, he is also a prominent proponent of supply-side, or “trickle-down economics,” which suggests lowering taxes and deregulation are the best way to spur economic growth.

Moore has been defiant, decrying the attacks on his possible nomination as a smear campaign. “I think I’m going to be on the Fed. By the way, the president and the White House economics team’s totally behind me,” Moore said on April 30 on CNBC.

National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow, a close friend of Moore’s, also repeatedly affirmed the White House’s support for the Heritage Foundation fellow.

Trump’s selections of Moore and Cain were a departure from his past picks for the central bank. Four of the five Fed board members were appointed by the president, including Powell as chairman, and all of them cleared the Senate easily on bipartisan votes.

But Trump soured on Powell last year over the Fed’s interest rate moves. The president has also railed against the central bank for removing the extraordinary economic support put in place during the last recession and repeatedly called on the Fed to slash rates despite strong economic growth – an opinion shared by Moore.

In addition to his past comments, Moore faced blowback over a $75,000 tax dispute with the Internal Revenue Service and for his previous failure to pay more than $300,000 in child support and alimony payments. He was also criticized for 2014 remarks in which he referred to Cleveland and Cincinnati as “armpits of America.” “If you live in the Midwest, where else do you want to live besides Chicago, right?” Moore said during a forum at the Heartland Institute.

Economists across the political spectrum also questioned his economic credentials, with Moore himself having admitted that he is not an expert on monetary policy or bank regulation – the Fed’s two main areas of purview.

As the controversy over his past writings intensified, Moore called for a focus on his economic ideas, but even some of those — such as his belief that interest rate moves should be tied to commodity prices — generated opposition and some derision.

He has also maintained that the U.S. economy is experiencing deflation, though the Consumer Price Index indicates the opposite, putting the inflation rate at just under 2 percent.

Burgess Everett contributed to this report.