Trump Fed pick in 2002: No more women refs, no women anything

Stephen Moore, President Trump’s pick for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board, suggested in 2002 that women should have no role whatsoever in men’s college basketball.

“Here’s the rule change I propose: No more women refs, no women announcers, no women beer venders, no women anything,” Moore wrote in National Review column in March 2002 that was unearthed Monday by CNN’s KFile.

{mosads}”There is, of course, an exception to this rule. Women are permitted to participate, if and only if, they look like Bonnie Bernstein,” he wrote. “The fact that Bonnie knows nothing about basketball is entirely irrelevant.”

He added that Bernstein, a CBS sports journalist at the time, should wear halter tops.

Moore told CNN’s KFile that the article was “a spoof. I have a sense of humor.”

A representative for Moore told The Hill that he has no comment at this time.

Moore was a CNN contributor from 2017 until last month.

Monday’s report came on the same day that another one of Trump’s Federal Reserve Board picks, Herman Cain, removed himself from consideration. Cain dropped out of the 2012 presidential race following allegations of sexual harassment by four women who worked for him at the National Restaurant Association, a Washington, D.C., trade group he led from 1996 to 1998.

He has denied the allegations but reached settlements with two of his accusers.

Other National Review columns by Moore included comments similar to the ones in his March 2002 piece.

In 2001, Moore wrote, “Another problem is that CBS now has women announcers and commentators. Is nothing sacred?”

Two years later, he wrote that there should be “no women announcers.”

Thirteen days after the March 2002 column was posted, Moore responded to criticism he had received.

“Several readers (all women) have called and e-mailed complaining about my last column as ‘sexist’ because I said that women shouldn’t be permitted to ref the men’s game,” Moore wrote.

“Their retort was: ‘Well then why should men ref the women’s games?’ Look, for all I care the women can use chimpanzees to ref their games. I hate women’s basketball,” he added.

Updated at 1:16 p.m.