Likely Federal Reserve nominee Stephen Moore promised to not be a “sycophant” for President Donald Trump if he gets a seat and tried to walk back his vicious criticism of current chairman Jerome Powell.
He had called for Powell to step down when the Fed raised interest rates.
“I was really angry,” Moore told the New York Times. “I was furious — and Trump was furious, too. I just thought that the December rate increase was inexplicable. Commodity prices were already falling dramatically.”
“I said these things that I do regret saying, because I think Powell’s doing the best job that he can,” he continued. “Do I regret the rhetoric that I used? Yes. Was I right? Yes.”
“Do the President and I think a lot alike on a lot of things? Absolutely. That’s one of the reasons he picked me to be an economic adviser and be on the Fed, because we share a lot of the same economic philosophy,” he concluded. But “I don’t think anybody can reasonably say I am a sycophant for Trump, because I’m not.”
Moore has drawn fire from a wide range of economists who see him as comically unqualified for the job.
