Stephen Moore on his Fed nomination: ‘Full speed ahead’

Stephen Moore said Thursday he remains committed to serving on the Federal Reserve Board despite growing opposition among Senate Republicans to his possible nomination by President Trump.

“I’m all in,” Moore said in an interview with Bloomberg News, adding that he spoke to a White House official on Wednesday who said “they’re all in” as well.

“My biggest ally is the president,” Moore added. “He’s full speed ahead.”

{mosads}Moore told the news agency that he expects Trump to formally nominate him to fill an open Fed board seat within three weeks.

His comments come after a number of key Republican senators voiced concerns about his nomination, including Sen. Joni Ernst (Iowa), who objected to his “ridiculous” past writings about women.

Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, said concerns about Moore are not just confined to female senators. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close Trump ally, said his nomination would be “very problematic.”

Moore, a conservative economic commentator who has ties to Capitol Hill Republicans, said he was surprised by the concerns held by GOP senators. He also expressed confidence he could win support from some Senate Democrats if his nomination clears the Banking Committee and reaches the floor.  

“Just because she’s ‘no’ today doesn’t mean she’s ‘no’ three months from now,” Moore said in response to Ernst’s objections. “The world is going to be very different two months from now.”

He again defended his past comments and op-ed columns about women, saying they were “meant to be humorous.”

“Yeah, I’m embarrassed and apologetic about some of these columns I wrote,” he said.

Moore added that spurring economic growth is a more important concern for women than “some injudicious things” he wrote more than a decade ago.

The White House has said it is reviewing Moore’s writings even as advisers have stressed that Trump still stands behind his nomination.

Democrats and other economists have also objected to Moore’s nomination, calling it an attempt by Trump to exert political control over the traditionally independent central bank.

Moore was a campaign adviser for Trump and played an influential role in shaping the tax-cut package Congress passed in 2017.

In a Wednesday opinion piece for The Hill, Moore dismissed what he called the “scorched-earth battle tactics” his critics are employing to derail his nomination and defended his qualifications to serve on the Fed board, which have also come under scrutiny.

“I have been right a lot more than I’ve been wrong on monetary policy — and the most recent vindication has been my harsh criticisms of the Fed Board raising interest rates last September and December,” he wrote. “Ever since reversing course in January, the economy and the stock market have been on a tear — and still no inflation. I rest my case.”