The White House is interviewing candidates to replace Stephen Moore and Herman Cain as the president’s picks for the Federal Reserve board, according to President Trump’s chief economic adviser.
Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, said Moore and Cain still had the backing of Trump but that other figures were also in the frame.
“We’re talking to a number of candidates. We always do,” he said.
Cain, in particular, is under pressure to stand aside.
Kudlow added that it was up to Cain, a businessman who ran for the 2012 Republican nomination, to decide whether he wanted to remain in the race.
“At the end of the day, it will probably be up to Herman Cain if he wants to stay in that process or not,” he told reporters at the White House. “As far as we are concerned he is still in the process and it is proceeding.”
[Related: Pelosi: Trump Fed picks Moore and Cain are ‘dangerous’]
Neither pick has yet been formally nominated and both have generated controversy over posts that are generally given to non-partisan figures.
Moore and Cain have echoed Trump’s recent calls to cut interest rates to further stimulate a growing economy, raising fears that the Fed’s independence could be at risk.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Jerome H. Powell, his own choice for Fed chairman, saying he does not agree with Powell’s approach.
Cain is under fire for allegations of sexual harassment that helped end his 2012 presidential run. He has denied the claims.
And Moore, a conservative economist who served on the Trump campaign, has worried moderates with his outspoken attacks on Fed interest rate policy. And he has attracted criticism over a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service that claims owes more than $75,000 in taxes and penalties related to child-support payments.
