Conservative commentator Stephen Moore‘s prospects for sitting on the board of the U.S. Federal Reserve appear to be slimming as Republican women — and men — in the Senate appear to be turning against the man that U.S. President Donald Trump has said he would nominate for the body that sets monetary policy.
Those prospects are dimming as Moore, a former chief economist with the Heritage Foundation, has seen his past comments about women come to light.
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Senators Joni Ernst, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Shelley Moore Capito are among the Republican voices who have spoken critically about Moore being possibly nominated for the Federal Reserve.
Those criticisms have emerged amid revelations of remarks about women that Moore has written in the National Review, as reported by CNN.
Moore wrote in the conservative magazine that women should not be allowed to referee, announce or sell beer at men’s college basketball games, and has said that female athletes agitating for pay equity are seeking “equal pay for inferior work.”
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He also complained in a column that his wife had voted for Democrats and said, “women are sooo malleable! No wonder there’s a gender gap.”
Responding to these revalations, Moore told CNN, “this was a spoof. I have a sense of humour.”
On Monday, Ernst said she was “not really enthused” with Moore’s possible nomination, and said she’d be “very unlikely” to support him, ABC News reported.
Murkowski, meanwhile, has said she has “reservations” about Moore, and Capito said it’s difficult to look beyond some of his past comments.
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But women aren’t alone in the Senate, in expressing misgivings about Trump’s Federal Reserve pick.
Sen. Lindsey Graham has called Moore’s candidacy “very problematic.”
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In Moore, Trump has found a fellow critic of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at a time when the president has slammed the Fed for interest rate hikes.
Trump criticized Powell after the Federal Reserve raised the benchmark interest rate by a quarter-point in December, and the president’s remarks raised concern that he would fire him.
Moore has previously suggested that Powell should probably be fired — though he later said on Bloomberg television that his remarks were perhaps “written in a time of anger.”
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Trump’s pick would have to be confirmed by the Senate if he were to sit on the seven-member board.
There are currently two vacancies on the board.
Trump had previously indicated that he would nominate ex-Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain for an empty seat.
Cain, however, withdrew his name from consideration after four Republican senators — including Murkowski — said they didn’t support his nomination.
For his part, Cain cited “ethical restrictions” which could see him having to let go of most of his business interests as the reason why he was withdrawing.
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