The nominee to be the Federal Reserve’s vice chairman denied Tuesday that President Trump tried to pressure him on monetary policy, saying that the president “absolutely” did not seek any sort of commitments during the interview process.
“Let me just state definitively that I had a number of meetings over several months with several officials, including the president, and in no meeting at no time did I have reason to question the independence of the Federal Reserve,” Richard Clarida said during his nomination hearing in the Senate. “Absolutely not.”
The possibility that Trump is trying to exert pressure on the independent Fed was a point of focus in the hearing, with multiple senators asking Clarida if he would resist Trump requests to move interest rates higher or lower.
Trump has tested the traditional boundaries between the administration and the independent central bank, including with tweets about monetary policy. Traditionally, administrations have avoided commenting on interest rates and the money supply to allow the Fed to operate free from the political process.
One potential candidate who interviewed with Trump for a job at the Fed said recently that Trump asked about how he would set interest rates and appeared not to care about the central bank’s independence.
But Clarida, a former adviser to the investment firm PIMCO and an academic economist, said Tuesday that Trump did not ask any such questions during his interview. He also pledged to resist any pressure put on him by the administration. So did Michelle Bowman, the Kansas State Bank commissioner nominated for a spot on the Fed’s Board of Governors who also testified Tuesday.
The two appear to be in good position for confirmation, but they may not receive support from liberal Democrats, who wanted them to commit to oppose efforts from the Trump administration to ease bank regulations. During the hearing, both nominees avoided giving definite promises to clash with other regulatory appointees.
