Democrats have moved to stall Donald Trump’s effort to exert greater control over the US Federal Reserve, condemning the president’s “absurd” bid to install a new leader of the central bank while it is targeted with criminal investigations.
Democratic lawmakers on the Senate banking committee urged its Republican leadership on Thursday to postpone the planned confirmation hearing for Kevin Warsh, the financial executive and former Fed governor Trump has nominated to replace Jerome Powell as Fed chair.
In a letter to banking committee chair Senator Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, the 11 Democrats called for a hearing currently scheduled for Tuesday to be delayed until investigations into Powell and Lisa Cook, a current Fed governor, are closed.
Powell – whom the president has frequently and publicly chastised over his refusal to dramatically lower interest rates – is facing a criminal investigation into the renovations of the central bank’s headquarters, which he dismissed as a “pretext” tied to the Fed’s refusal to bow to Trump’s demands.