GOP Senator Hopes Jerome Powell Doesn’t Stay On At the Fed: ‘Good Time For Him to Cash In’

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) joined CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday morning and urged Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to leave the Fed altogether once his term as chair ends.

“It’d be, first of all, it’d be unusual for a Fed chair to, you know, remain on as a governor, as a board member of the FOMC, and for good reason,” Cramer began, referring to the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets interest rates.

President Donald Trump has regularly attacked Powell in recent months, claiming the Fed hasn’t lowered interest rates fast enough. Trump’s attacks on Powell are unprecedented for a U.S. president and sound alarm bells for those concerned about the White House trying to politicize monetary policy.

“Also, by the way, you know, it’s a good time for him to cash in, if you will, on his experience and his Rolodex and his notoriety. He’s certainly earned that opportunity,” continued Cramer, adding:

I would hope that he would not do that and stay on just to fight this IG. I mean, the IG, the Inspector General, this is their job. There were large cost overruns. It’s not unreasonable to expect an audit of the books, if you will. And if J-Powell has no concern about illegal activity or fraud — he certainly didn’t — it doesn’t seem in any way like he enriched himself in any way. He was either incompetent, perhaps, or maybe it was just out of his control, or I think to some degree, arrogant.

That $700 million or a billion dollars of cost overruns is natural for a building in Washington, D.C. — something I don’t accept. I don’t think most Americans do. But, you know, as far as it leading to anything more, if he’s confident that that’s not the case, there’s really no reason for him not to exit gracefully and with his head held high.

Earlier in the week, Trump’s DOJ dropped a probe into Powell, widely seen as retribution for not lowering interest rates, over what Trump claims are exploding costs on a new Fed building. Powell has defended the spending and pushed back against Trump’s claims of massive overruns.

Watch the clip above via CNBC.

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