Federal Reserve pick Stephen Moore, facing criticism over his past writing about women and gender equality, is claiming that his opponents are “pulling a Kavanaugh against me.”
Moore’s comments were a reference to now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whose confirmation last year was nearly derailed by allegations of sexual assault.
In an interview with North Dakota radio program “The Flag” on Tuesday, Moore said he was honored to get the call from President Donald Trump but said that it has been one personal assault after another, calling it “a kind of character assassination that has nothing to do with economics.”
“They have six full-time investigative reporters looking into me at The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN. You know Scott, I kind of wear it as a badge of honor, that they’re so afraid of me,” said Moore, a former CNN contributor.
He added: “They’re pulling a Kavanaugh against me.”
Earlier this week, CNN’s KFile reported that Moore argued in columns for the National Review that women should be banned from refereeing, announcing or beer vending at men’s college basketball games. He also criticized female athletes advocating for pay equality, writing that they wanted “equal pay for inferior work.”
“This was a spoof. I have a sense of humor,” Moore said in an email to CNN.
President Donald Trump said in March that he intends to nominate Moore, who served as a 2016 campaign adviser, to the powerful Federal Reserve Board of Governors, which sets interest rates. Moore has not yet been formally nominated.
Trump’s other pick, 2012 Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, withdrew from consideration earlier this week, citing the pay cut that would come with a seat on the Fed.
Cain, a former restaurant executive, also faced the revival of sexual harassment claims that effectively ended his presidential ambitions. Cain has denied those allegations.
But Cain faced opposition in the Senate, where four Republicans said earlier this month they would not support his nomination. Moore, a well-known conservative commentator and former Wall Street Journal editorial board member who is close to top Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow, so far has not drawn public opposition from Republicans.
Democrats – incuding Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer – have said Moore is too political to join the traditionally apolitical Fed, and have called on Trump to find someone else to nominate.
Trump has broken presidential precedent by being openly critical of the Federal Reserve, and specifically of Chairman Jerome Powell, over its interest rate moves. Moore has echoed that position in interviews.
CNN’s KFile also resurfaced Moore’s criticism of Trump’s positions on immigration in a 2015 radio interview, calling them “crazy” and “dangerous.” Moore told CNN that he said “a lot of negative things about Donald Trump before I met him.”
Moore advocated for eliminating the corporate and federal income taxes and said he believed capitalism was more important than democracy, according to CNN’s KFile.
In a separate interview Tuesday with the “Larry Elder Show,” Moore said if confirmed, he’d push for transparency at the Federal Reserve, arguing the bank “acts in private and in secret all the time.”
“Frankly, I don’t know how it works because it’s such a secret chamber over there,” he said.
He also added that he wished he hadn’t written his columns on women.
“I wrote some politically incorrect columns, and some of them go back to the turn of the century,” Moore said. “They were a long time ago that I kind of wish I hadn’t written now. They certainly don’t reflect my views. But what it is, is a diversion though.”
CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Paul LeBlanc contributed to this report.
