Cain Withdraws from Consideration for Seat on Federal Reserve
Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain has withdrawn from consideration for a seaton the Federal Reserve board amid focus on past allegations of sexual harassment and infidelity.
Cain ran for president as an insurgent populist eyeing the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, but dropped out of that race in December 2011 after three women accused him of sexual improprieties during his tenure, a decade earlier, as head of the National Restaurant Association, and a fourth woman came forward claiming to be his longtime mistress.
He initially dismissed the claims as baseless, but then abruptly announced that he was suspending his presidential campaign “because of the continued distraction, the continued hurt … on me, on my family.”
Those scandals resurfaced earlier this month, after President Donald Trump said he intended to nominate Cain and conservative ally Stephen Moore to fill vacancies on the Federal Reserve’s seven-member board of governors.
The nominations immediately raised concerns about the central bank’s ability to remain politically independent. This was particularly true in the case of Cain’s nomination. In late 2018, he co-founded a pro-Trump political action committee, America Fighting Back PAC.
His nomination was all but doomed earlier this month when four Republican senators said they wouldn’t vote to confirm him if he were nominated. The GOP holds just a three-seat majority in the Senate.
Despite all this, Cain said just days ago on Fox Business Network that there was no way he was going to withdraw, adding that the four Republican senators who had expressed reservations about him “have never met me.”
Even then, however, his support at the White House seemed to be softening. Speaking with reporters last week, Trump’s top economic adviser Lawrence Kudlow said, “it will probably be up to Herman Cain if he wants to stay in that process or not.”
On Monday, President Trump tweeted “My friend Herman Cain, a truly wonderful man, has asked me not to nominate him for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board. I will respect his wishes. Herman is a great American who truly loves our Country!”
Since last fall, Trump has repeatedly criticized Jerome Powell, his pick for Fed chairman, and other Fed officials for raising interest rates four times last year.
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