GOP senator says Trump’s choice of Stephen Moore for Fed ‘is in trouble’
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WASHINGTON — Stephen Moore’s prospects of getting confirmed to the Federal Reserve board grew dimmer Wednesday as Trump administration officials began to acknowledge privately that he does not have the votes and as Republican senators indicated that the ensuing drama over Moore’s pending nomination would end soon.
Moore, whose name President Trump has floated for an open seat at the powerful U.S. central bank, has faced escalating criticism from Senate Republicans this week, primarily because of his past writings disparaging women. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, has already said she would likely oppose him, while several other GOP senators have expressed concerns and have privately indicated that they prefer he never be officially nominated.
Senate Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., said in an interview Wednesday that he expects more information about Moore’s fate by the end of the week and that trying to confirm him in the Senate, where Republicans control 53 votes, would be a “very heavy lift.”
“I think there will be probably some more information about that nomination in the next day or so,” Thune said. “I think he’s gotten enough feedback from the people up here that his nomination is in trouble.”
President Trump’s desire to install ally Stephen Moore on the Federal Reserve board seems increasingly imperiled as several Republican senators have come forward to raise concerns about the potential nomination https://t.co/673peTxdzR pic.twitter.com/29YDKtfI7W
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) May 1, 2019
Thune, the party’s chief vote-counter in the Senate, said he could not predict what Moore or the administration ultimately decide on his pending nomination. But two GOP senators familiar with party dynamics, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said they expect either Moore to withdraw or for the White House to cancel his pending nomination by either Thursday or Friday.
Meanwhile, there is a growing awareness among some senior administration officials that Moore has no chance to win Senate confirmation, but a decision has not been made on the timing of any announcement.
Still, Moore on Wednesday resisted any notion that he would step aside, telling The Washington Post: “Full speed ahead.”
Moore has come under a firestorm of criticism for his past writings and comments, in which he argued that there would be societal problems if men were not the family breadwinner, complained about women in sports and derided women in combat. He now explains them as “humor columns” and has said he regrets having written them.
.@StephenMoore explains his 2016 joke about Donald Trump moving into the White House and kicking “a black family out of public housing.” Moore says, “That is a joke I always made,” adding he didn’t mean it “like a black person” lived there. “I shouldn’t have said it,” he says. pic.twitter.com/9EO9JzBgtW
— Firing Line with Margaret Hoover (@FiringLineShow) April 30, 2019
But while it is his writings about women that have most irritated Senate Republicans, Moore comes with other baggage. He had also fought the IRS over $75,000 in unpaid taxes and was found in contempt of court in 2013 not paying his ex-wife more than $330,000 in child support and alimony.
Moore says that he has now paid the tax lien and that it was based on “about $7,000 of tax underpayment.” He and his wife are working to get the IRS to return the rest of the money they believe they are owed.
He has not been formally nominated by the White House, and another potential Fed pick who similarly was never nominated — 2012 GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain — bowed out of consideration in April when he similarly shed support among Senate Republicans.
When it became clear that Cain’s prospects for Senate confirmation had evaporated several weeks ago, White House officials largely remained quiet on the issue and let Cain withdraw from consideration on his own terms several days later.
“I sure would like to see (Moore) just withdraw,” Ernst said.
Sen ERNST on Stephen Moore: "No, he does not have the votes."
"He would not have enough votes. Don’t bother sending (the nomination) up, that’s all I gotta say," she says.
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) April 30, 2019
Ernst, who faces reelection next year, has been the most vocal in her opposition to Moore, but other senators are increasingly raising concerns about his potential nomination, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has told Republicans to take their issues with Moore directly to the White House.
In a closed-door party lunch Tuesday, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., ticked off the litany of issues plaguing Moore — such as the tax payments, child support and his columns about women — and noted that Senate Republicans could get through to confirmation, but that it will be tough, according to two senators in attendance.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., a reliable Trump ally who nonetheless helped derail Cain’s nomination last month, also told fellow Senate Republicans to make their concerns about Moore known, jokingly telling others inside the lunch that he would not be the one scuttling the nomination.
Opinion: The Stephen Moore farce reveals the depths of GOP cynicism https://t.co/76idyqjHBh
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 1, 2019
Meanwhile, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell declined to address Moore’s assertion this week that the decline in wages for males is the “biggest problem” in the economy over the last 25 years.
“I think men and women should make the same for the same work, by and large,” Powell said. When pressed, he said it would not be appropriate for him to comment on anything related to a potential nominee.