Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Joining us now from Capitol Hill is Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, who I suspect has a few questions ready for mister Myron. Senator, welcome back to Bloomberg's TV and radio. In the first hearing for Stephen Myron to join the Federal Reserve Board of Governors,
we'll see this tomorrow. His opening remarks, some of his prepared remarks were released, and he writes, in my view, the most important job of the Central Bank is to prevent depressions and hyper inflations. Do you agree with him? And do you believe him?
Look, can we just back up just a tiny little bit, and that is the Banking Committee should be holding hearing tomorrow, but it should not be a business as usual. Let's grease the skids and run through Donald Trump's nominee for the FED. Instead, we should be heavy an oversight hearing about Donald Trump's unprecedented attacks on the independence of the FED.
He has made three hard runs at the FED over the past few months, trying to fire Jerome Pal just on his own, trying to fire Jerome Pal for cause, trumping up charges around how much money he had spent in the FED building rehabilitation, and now trying to fire Lisa Cook. Donald Trump is making a move to try to destroy the independence of the Federal Reserve Bank, unlike
anything that has ever been done in American history. And right now the Republicans who run the committee are saying, let's just have a business as usual, Let's bring up the Donald Trump nominee, move him on through. And I just want to be clear, I think that is a mistake. I think we have a responsibility to address this question of FED independence.
First, Senator Warren, let's talk about Lisa Cook there in the seat, that of course is getting a lot of attention, your colleague, FM. North Carolina Senator Tillis earlier today said he would not consider nominating someone to take her place while the litigation was ongoing. If the Supreme Court, for example, does rule in fact that while the litigation is on going to figure out whether her firing was in fact legal, would you be willing to block Donald Trump's nominee to fill that seat.
Look, Donald Trump cannot fire Lisa Cook based on at least the facts or non facts that have been presented thus far. Again, this is about independence of the FED and Donald Trump's efforts to seize control over the FED, and yes, I would try to block that, and I would think the Republican senators, who also care about independence of the FED would do the same. You know, I just want to remind everyone why we have an independent FED. And that's true whether you have a Democrat in the
White House or a Republican in the White House. You in theory, have a group of people out there who look at the economic numbers and they make decisions on things like interest rates as best they can based on those numbers, not based on political pressure from the President of the United States. If Donald Trump destroys that, sure he may be able to get what he wants on interest rates in the short term, but he undermines confidence in the FED and its decision making and its rate setting.
We've seen this before when autocrats have taken over central bank in places like Turkey. What happens is interest rates shoot through the roof, and that is a real problem for our economy. Everybody has a stake in an independent FED and to let Donald Trump just destroy that without even pushing back is a terrible.
Mistake, Senator Warren, I hear you, But if the Supreme Court rules that a nominee can actually take her place, how do you plan on blocking that.
I'm in the minority. I understand that, but I would try to persuade my Republican colleagues that it would be a terrible mistake to help Donald Trump in effect destroy the independence of the FED. Look, this is nothing new in the sense that go back and look at it. There are many Republican senators who in times past have talked about the importance of the independence of the FED, because, like I say, that's not like a democratic position or
a Republican position. Nope, it's a position that those of us who try to watch this about how regulation of the economy works understand that from the beginning, providing some insulation for the financial decision makers, like the people who said interest rates, to insulate them from the political side of the House, from the President of the United States,
is ultimately good for the economy. And it's why our Fed's interst rate setting is the gold standard for the world, and Donald Trump wants to burn that down.
Senator, I know that this sounds like it's turning into a hearing that will be atypical tomorrow and something that we're going to be watching and bringing to our viewers and listeners here on Bloomberg. I do want to ask you about a couple of other stories that are making news today, and one that's from the New York Times that has to do strangely with the New York mayoral race.
Not something I would tend to ask you about, but Donald Trump is reportedly considering giving roles to some of the candidates in the New York mayoral race, including Eric Adams, for potentially a job at HUD. The idea would be including, by the way, Curtis Lea as well, that clear Aleen for Andrew Cuomo. I don't know if you buy that reporting, but you would have to clear a nominee to run HUD. Correct. Is that something you would be prepared to do Secretary Adams.
Well, it depends on what he is nominated for. There are a lot of jobs at HUD that don't require Senate confirmation. We already have ahead of HUD. I don't know what Donald Trump is proposing that. The part that's triple underlined here is that Donald Trump supports Andrew Cuomo to be mayor of New York period. That's all this
is about. And he is willing to bring the force of the United States government to use his tools as President of the United States, not on behalf of the people of the United States, not on behalf of finding the best nominee for position at HUD but to be able to manipulate the mayoral race to try to help and Drew Cuomo in New York City. I think that's not only wrong for Donald Trump. I can't imagine that this is going to make the people of New York
City say, woo, who Andrew Cuomo is my guy. I think this is going to make the people of New York City say, our city is not for sale to Donald Trump.
Well, we'll see where this story goes. Senator. It does seem we can't get away from the story surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein files. And I know that there are a series of approaches on Capitol Hill right now to get the files released and to shed a light on the stories of victims who held a news conference today, President Trump was asked about this in the Oval office as he sat next to the President of Poland. Part of
his response was, quote, it's really a Democrat hoax. I know that no matter what you do, it's going to keep going. Unquote. Is he right, this is a Democrat hoax?
No, Look, this is not the Democrats. This is Donald Trump's own statements when he was running for president of the United States. Go back and play the clips when he and other Republicans promised, promised, promised that if Donald Trump became president and Republicans were in control, they were going to replay release all of the Epstein files. So do it. Just do it, and I don't mean release part of them. Do a little blackout, a little hair,
a little there. That's what's keeping this story alive. And you really have to ask yourself, if Donald Trump wants this story to go away, the way to do that is release all of the documents. And if he thinks that's not going to work, what's in those files?
Elizabeth Warren, I'm sure we will find out. A final question to you, were perhaps circling back to where we started this time on the economy. One of the big criticisms that we know J. Powell has based from various members of Washington, including Donald Trump, and I believe in yourself as well, is not cutting interest rates in the face of inflation, as something Stephen Myron has been talking
about quite significantly as well. Can you just explain to our Wall Street audience that's tuning into this program here why rate cuts make sense if there's a risk of exacerbating the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs on inflation.
So I started in two years ago saying that the data on inflation showing that inflation was coming down, that inflation was under better control, meant that Powell should start rate cuts. I thought that was entirely appropriate. I did my best to persuade him in a very public way, and obviously I did not succeed. They did one rate cut,
but that was it. Now, what Powell himself said last month was if Donald Trump had not created so much chaos with the with the tariffs and what he's done to the economy, that the Fed would have cut rates last February. So think about that. That means that basically, for six months now, Americans have been paying more on their credit cards, They've been paying more on interest on their car loans, and more on interest on home mortgage home equity lines of credit, paying more because of the
chaos that Donald Trump has created with tariffs. So look, I've been someone who thinks interest rates should come down, but the biggest obstacle to that happening is Donald Trump himself. If he wants to see interest rates come down, then stop creating this kind of chaos in the economy and stop this tear of fifty percent, ten percent, one hundred and twenty seven percent that keeps businesses from being able to plan, keeps businesses from buying new equipment and making investments,
keeps businesses from hiring more people. Donald Trump is the number one reason in America that we do not have a lower interest rate.
Today, Senator Warren will have to wrap up the conversation there. Ranking Banking Committee Member Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, we thank you so much for your time