On Thursday, Stephen Moore, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Fed, decided to withdraw his name from consideration for the post. Some of his past satirical articles about women in sports seem to have come into play among some U.S. Senators who said they could not support his nomination.
In a public statement, the economist thanked the president for considering him.
“I was honored and grateful that you asked me to serve on the Federal Reserve Board,” Moore said in a statement. “I am respectfully asking that you withdraw my name from consideration. The unrelenting attacks on my character have become untenable for me and my family and three more months of this would be too hard on us.”
The president broke the news on Twitter Thursday morning.
….and deregulation which have produced non-inflationary prosperity for all Americans. I’ve asked Steve to work with me toward future economic growth in our Country.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2019
Moore is an economic advisor with FreedomWorks and is the co-author of “Trumponomics.” Moore is also a popular guest on talk radio and cable news outlets.
The president launched his nomination of Moore late in March, but the nomination of the economist soon found rough political waters when some of his decade-old jokes about women in sports were dug up by opposition researchers.
Instead of debating economic policy, though, Moore ended up forced to answer to criticism over columns written in the early 2000s that were supposed to be off-handed satire in which he suggested that women should get out of college sports.
“Here’s the rule change I propose: No more women refs, no women announcers, no women beer vendors, no women anything,” he wrote of college sports in 2002.
In another, Moore was seen calling it a “travesty,” that girls seem to feel free to compete in men’s sports. And while making the case for getting rid of female referees and vendors at college basketball games, Moore asked aloud if there was any area in life “where men can take a vacation from women.”
Last Sunday, on ABC’s This Week, Moore was “apologetic” over the old columns.
“They were humor columns, but some of them weren’t funny, and so I am apologetic. I’m embarrassed by some of those things I wrote,” Moore told George Stephanopoulos.
But Moore also noted that he thought the attack was a distraction from his qualifications on economic matters. “I’ll debate anybody on economics… Let’s make this about the economy,” he said.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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