Kevin Warsh appeared before the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday for a confirmation hearing to become the next Federal Reserve chairman, and the session turned combative almost immediately. Senator Elizabeth Warren, the committee's ranking Democrat, accused him of being Trump's "sock puppet" and pressed him on undisclosed investment holdings worth at least $100 million.
Warren said placing Warsh at the Fed would give the president "access to the Fed's powerful authorities to enrich himself, his family and his Wall Street buddies." Warsh rejected the characterization directly. "Absolutely not," he said. He called the central bank's independence "essential" and said he was committed to preserving its self-governance.
The hearing also surfaced questions about Warsh's potential connections to Jeffrey Epstein. His name appears multiple times in Justice Department files related to the disgraced financier, though the BBC noted that appearing in those records does not imply wrongdoing. Warren asked whether any of his undisclosed funds invest in "companies affiliated with President Trump or his family, companies that have facilitated money laundering, Chinese-controlled companies or financing vehicles established by Jeffrey Epstein." Warsh did not answer the question directly. He said he planned to divest his holdings if confirmed.
Democrats also pressed Warsh on a Wall Street Journal report that Trump pushed him at a private meeting to commit to reducing borrowing costs. Warsh denied any such deal. "The president never once asked me to commit to any particular interest rate decision, period, and nor would I ever agree to do so if he had," he said. The hearing opened just after Trump told CNBC he would be disappointed if Warsh failed to immediately cut rates upon taking the job.
Support and opposition largely followed party lines, though Republican Senator Thom Tillis withheld his backing, adding a note of uncertainty to Warsh's path to confirmation.
