The White House wasn’t caught off guard when West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin announced his opposition to Sarah Bloom Raskin for a top Federal Reserve role, likely killing her nomination.
Though White House press secretary Jen Psaki wouldn’t go into details, she said the news was known internally before it went public Monday morning.
MANCHIN ANNOUNCES OPPOSITION TO BIDEN FED PICK RASKIN, IMPERILING HER NOMINATION
“We were aware of his position in advance of Sen. Manchin’s announcement,” Psaki said. “She is one of the most qualified individuals to ever be nominated to this position, and so where we are now is our focus on continuing to work with Chairman [Sherrod] Brown to garner bipartisan support.”
Manchin, a centrist Democrat, announced his opposition to Raskin in a Monday news release. In his decision to oppose her nomination, he cited the importance of the Fed in fighting inflation and remarks Raskin has made in the past skeptical of fossil fuels.
Raskin, whom President Joe Biden nominated to be the Fed’s vice chairwoman of supervision, has faced intense scrutiny from Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee. Republicans contend that Raskin would use the Fed improperly to combat climate change. The Biden administration will now likely need to find a new candidate.
Asked if the news from Manchin was delivered by a phone call or some other means of communication, Psaki would not elaborate.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“I’m just not going to detail more specifics,” she said.
