WASHINGTON, April 16 -- The White House is talking to a few candidates who could potentially replace Stephen Moore and Herman Cain, recently selected by President Donald Trump for the Federal Reserve Board, a senior White House official said Tuesday.
Larry Kudlow, the director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters at the White House that the administration still supports Moore and Cain for the Fed seats, but are interviewing several other candidates.
"We are talking to a number of candidates. We always do," said Kudlow, who is also the president's top economic advisor.
Cain, the former pizza company executive who served as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in the 1990s, ran for the 2017 Republican presidential nomination. His campaign ended after he was accused of sexual harassment.
Cain, who had co-founded a pro-Trump political action committee, America Fighting Back PAC, said earlier this month that he faced a "cumbersome" vetting process for the Fed position, and hinted that he might be considering withdrawing from it.
In March, Trump offered a Fed board seat to his former campaign adviser Stephen Moore, who recently published an opinion piece he co-authored on The Wall Street Journal, arguing that the Fed's tight-money policy is a threat to U.S. economic growth, which echoed the view of the president.
Moore, a visiting fellow for Project for Economic Growth at The Heritage Foundation, and the founder of the conservative Club for Growth, has faced mounting criticism after court documents filed in 2018 surfaced a few weeks ago showed that he owes 75,000 U.S. dollars in unpaid federal taxes, interest and penalties.
"Stephen Moore is in the process. We support him. We support Herman Cain. We'll just let things play out in the vetting," Kudlow said.
There are currently two vacancies on the seven-member Fed board, and nominations have to be approved by the Senate.