WASHINGTON – Vice President JD Vance told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview that it would be “preposterous” if President Donald Trump couldn’t fire Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve, but denied the president has an enemies list to pursue with federal investigations.
“The question is: do we want a person who makes a mistake like that to be a person who sits on the Federal Reserve Board, which makes important monetary policy for the entire country?” Vance said after a key Trump ally accused Cook, a Federal Reserve governor, of mortgage irregularities.
“Whether it’s criminal, whether it’s intentional or not, we know that this is a person, I think, who doesn’t meet the standard that we should expect for the Federal Reserve, which is why the president fired her and he does have the legal right to fire her,” Vance said.
Trump’s move came amid an effort to muscle the independent central bank into lowering interest rates. Cook has refused to resign and her lawyer said he would file a federal lawsuit to fight what he called Trump’s “illegal action.” Cook hasn’t been charged criminally.
Trump has argued that the central bank should lower interest rates to spur housing growth and the economy. But when setting up the Federal Reserve in 1913, Congress tried to protect it from political influence by saying officials could only be removed for “cause,” which means a good reason.
“Isn’t it a little preposterous to say that the president of the United States – the elected president of the United States – working of course in concert with Congress, doesn’t have the ability to make these determinations?” Vance said. “I don’t think that we allow bureaucrats to sit from on high and make decisions about monetary policy and interest rates without any input from the people that were elected to serve the American people.”
The Supreme Court has refused to block Trump from firing tens of thousands of federal workers, including the heads of so-called independent boards. But in an unsigned decision in May, the high court said the Fed was different because its governors could only be removed for cause.
Legal experts said it’s unclear how the Supreme Court would rule on Trump’s efforts to oust Cook for an unproven allegation. Critics say removing Cook could destroy the Fed’s independence.
But Trump accused her of “potentially criminal” action for declaring in mortgage documents that houses in Michigan and Georgia were each her “primary residence.”
Vance said it would be “preposterous” if the president couldn’t remove people from the Federal Reserve’s seven-member board of governors.
The dispute over the Fed comes as the Justice Department is investigating a handful of Trump’s political opponents. The targets include former national security adviser John Bolton, former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey, Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California.
Brennan and Comey participated in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election under the Obama administration, which Trump has argued unfairly targeted his campaign. Bolton served in Trump’s first administration but has become a vocal critic of the president and the FBI searched his home Aug. 22.
James won a civil judgment of business fraud against Trump over his private real-estate business, although an appeals court overturned the $454 million in monetary damages. And Schiff led the first impeachment of Trump over his dealings with Ukraine. James and Schiff are both under investigation for mortgage fraud, the same allegation as Trump wields against Cook.
Vance denied Trump has an enemies list.
“No, not at all,” Vance said. “I think the president has a view that we should enforce the law, and if people broke the law, then of course they should face some prosecution for doing so.”
Vance noted that Trump has pardoned Democrats along with Republicans he thinks were prosecuted unfairly.
“This is about the law,” Vance said. “And if the president thinks a person has been unfairly prosecuted, he’ll pardon that person or commute their sentence. If he thinks a person has violated the law, whether they’re a Republican or a Democrat, he’s going to encourage his Department of Justice to go after that person.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Vance defends Trump’s ouster of Lisa Cook from Federal Reserve
