Trump says Moore withdraws from Fed consideration

President Trump said Thursday that conservative commentator Stephen Moore has decided to withdraw from consideration for the Federal Reserve Board amid staunch opposition from Senate Republicans.

“Steve Moore, a great pro-growth economist and a truly fine person, has decided to withdraw from the Fed process,” Trump tweeted.

{mosads}Trump praised Moore for having “won the battle of ideas including Tax Cuts and deregulation” and said he asked him “to work with me toward future economic growth in our Country.”

Steve Moore, a great pro-growth economist and a truly fine person, has decided to withdraw from the Fed process. Steve won the battle of ideas including Tax Cuts….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2019

….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.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2019

The announcement came just hours after Moore said the White House was still “all in” on his potential nomination.

Moore told Trump in a Thursday letter “the unrelenting attacks on my character have become untenable for me and my family and three more months of this would be too hard on us.”

“I will continue to be a loud economic voice advocating for your policies, which will keep us on a prosperous path of 3 to 4 percent growth with rising wages and low inflation for as far as the eye can see,” Moore wrote. “I am always at your disposal.”

Moore’s withdrawal marks another setback for Trump’s effort to install loyalists on the Fed board. The Heritage Foundation visiting fellow advised Trump during his 2016 campaign and helped shape the tax-cut proposal passed by Congress in 2017 

Trump announced on March 22 that he would nominate Moore to the Fed, calling him “a very respected Economist” and an “outstanding choice.”

But Moore was fiercely criticized for his intense partisanship, harsh rebukes of the current Fed regime and what detractors considered dubious and inconsistent economic analyses.

Moore, a conservative economist and former Trump campaign adviser, faced increasing backlash from Senate Republicans over a track record of controversial commentary.

Most of the focus was on columns in which Moore disparaged women, including one he wrote that said women should not be involved in sports.

“Here’s the rule change I propose: No more women refs, no women announcers, no women beer venders, no women anything,” he wrote in the 2002 piece for National Review.

In that column, which Moore said was meant as humor, he said the sports broadcaster Bonnie Bernstein could participate in sports but only in a halter top.

Moore has also taken heat for arguing that a wife earning more than her husband could be “disruptive” to a family and that “the male needs to be the breadwinner of the family.”

In another column, Moore described parts of Ohio as being the armpits of America. 

Moore had also been criticized for a joke about former President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama made in late 2016.

“By the way, did you see, there’s that great cartoon going along?,” he said. “A New York Times headline: ‘First Thing Donald Trump Does As President Is Kick a Black Family Out of Public Housing,’ and it has Obama leaving the White House. I mean, I just love that one. Just a great one,” Moore said at an event on health care.

Several GOP senators raised doubts about Moore’s political viability this week and said he would likely fail to be confirmed.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the Senate GOP whip, said Thursday he did not know if Moore could win over enough Republicans to overcome “challenges and obstacles” to his confirmation.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close Trump ally, called Moore’s potential nomination “problematic” and said “it would be tough” to get him confirmed.

And Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), a member of Senate Republican leadership, said Tuesday she would not support Moore due in part to his “ridiculous” commentary and urged the White House to pull his nomination.

Trump also had floated 2012 GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain for a Federal Reserve Board seat. Cain also withdrew from consideration after it became clear he could not be confirmed.  

Moore had remained optimistic about his Fed bid as recently as Thursday morning, telling reporters that he and the White House were “full speed ahead” on his potential nomination.

But Moore also said throughout the past two weeks that he would withdraw from consideration if he proved to be a political “liability” for Republicans.

“If I had had any idea that this kind of inspection was going to go on, which totally caught me off guard, I would have told the president, ‘You know, Mr. President, I can’t do Senate confirmation. I’ve got too many skeletons in my closet,’ and I do,” Moore said on “The Michael Medved Show,” a conservative talk radio show.

Updated 1:23 p.m.