| Speaker | Time | Text |
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Powell's Resignation Threat?
00:09:37
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| Eisenhower in his farewell address. | ||
| We will talk with co-author Ben Freeman, the Quincy Institute Director of Democratizing Foreign Policy. | ||
|
unidentified
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A new interview with co-author Ben Freeman about his book, The Trillion Dollar War Machine, How Runaway Military Spending Drives America into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home. | |
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| Joining us this morning is Congressman Mike Haradopoulos, a Republican on the Financial Services Committee. | ||
| Congressman, thank you so much for being with us this morning. | ||
| Great to be back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| All right. | ||
| You serve on that important Financial Services Committee, which of course has oversight over the Federal Reserve. | ||
| Can you just tell us your thoughts about the now criminal federal investigation into the Fed chairman, Jerome Powell? | ||
| Well, it's something that we all have to look at. | ||
| As you know, there's been about a billion dollar cost overrun with the Fed building. | ||
| He was asked multiple times, you know, give us more information. | ||
| We want to understand why we go over a billion dollars over budget on this particular building. | ||
| It seemed like he didn't want to respond to those questions. | ||
| And of course, they're putting a little more pressure on him to say, look, we need more transparency in general in government. | ||
| And I think that's the direction where the president, I should say, attorneys chose to go. | ||
| But in general, we are frustrated with Powell because we think interest rates should be lower. | ||
| As you know, the inflation rate has been cut dramatically in the first year. | ||
| And we've also been frustrated, as he admitted in the committee, the very question I asked. | ||
| I asked, did you make some mistakes during the Biden years of not adjusting the rates accordingly? | ||
| And what was the reason for inflation? | ||
| And he said point blank in the committee, he said overspending the last four years caused inflation by the government. | ||
| Now, let's run through some of what's involved in this investigation. | ||
| According to New York Times here, it's what to know about the criminal investigation into the Fed chair. | ||
| And it says that the probe revolves around Jerome H. Powell, who has led the central bank since 2018 and his oversight of a $2.5 billion renovation of the Fed's headquarters in Washington. | ||
| As you said, the project is running roughly over $700 million over budget. | ||
| It's expected to cost $2.5 billion. | ||
| Prosecutors are looking into whether or not Powell misled Congress when questioned last June before the Senate Banking Committee about the project, as well as spending records they say that they requested from his staff. | ||
| Do you believe that these allegations are credible? | ||
| You have someone who you just said have spoken to Powell before. | ||
| And one, are they credible? | ||
| And two, is there a place for your committee to do something more on this matter, requesting more documents in tandem with the federal government? | ||
| Well, I think you answered the question that we should get information. | ||
| I mean, the trust in government is way down and partially because it's not transparent enough. | ||
| I come from the great state of Florida. | ||
| We have what's called the sunshine laws. | ||
| Everything is in the sunshine, including the budget, how we spend dollars, even the companies that get government dollars. | ||
| We need a lot more transparency. | ||
| And as I understand it, they've asked multiple times for the Fed chairman to provide the information. | ||
| And look, there are cost overruns, especially as after COVID, the supply chains went up, et cetera. | ||
| I think he should just be transparent on why we have the cost overruns. | ||
| At this point, it seemed like he's ignored the request over and over to just answer the basic questions of why there are cost overruns. | ||
| And that causes great frustration given some of the craziness we're seeing in places like California and Minnesota where people are really fraudulently using money or lying on applications to spend those important taxpayer dollars. | ||
| So do you view these allegations as credible? | ||
| Well, I think you have to. | ||
| I mean, we're talking about the United States government and we're talking about the Fed Board. | ||
| And anytime that any allegations like that, you have to take it seriously. | ||
| But I think this problem would be alleviated quickly if Powell would just come forth and say, here are the numbers. | ||
| This is why we're spending so much over budget. | ||
| I think we'd solve the problem overnight. | ||
| And on the Financial Services Committee, who has oversight over the Fed? | ||
| You guys, you're saying that you don't have that information. | ||
| We do, but I mean, I think this has gone beyond that. | ||
| I mean, again, they asked them over and over again, where are the records? | ||
| And why would you ignore an investigator who's, again, it's not your money. | ||
| It's the government's money. | ||
| We want to know how it's being spent. | ||
| It's that simple. | ||
| Now, I want to point you to a tweet from the U.S. Attorney Janine Pierrow, who after that video that Powell released, she said that the United States Attorney's Office contacted the Federal Reserve on multiple occasions to discuss cost overruns in the chairman and congressional testimony, but were ignored, necessitating the use of the legal federal process, which is not a threat. | ||
| The word, quote, indictment has come out of Mr. Powell's mouth, no one else's. | ||
| None of this would have happened if he had just responded to our outreach. | ||
| I believe that a source told the Washington Post in the last few days that they did receive these emails, but it didn't include anything about an indictment or a deadline, I believe is what they told the post. | ||
| But I wonder, just not responding to an email from a U.S. attorney, is that a legal basis to start an investigation? | ||
| Well, again, as I think she put very well, multiple times they ask. | ||
| This has been an ongoing situation. | ||
| As you know, the President, Mr. Powell, had a very unique conversation mid-part of last year, literally at the building, saying, you know, why are these cost overruns taking so why are they so radically high? | ||
| And so I think that's the frustration. | ||
| He knew these questions were coming. | ||
| And it's like anything else. | ||
| I'm a person who used to not only be a college teacher, but also a business person. | ||
| People, clients expect transparency. | ||
| And when you're spending that much money, I mean, think about the number, $2.5 billion on a Taj Mahal for the Federal Reserve Board. | ||
| They want to know why we're spending almost a billion dollars more than expected. | ||
| And he chooses just to ignore a request from an attorney from the Justice Department. | ||
| I mean, if I get a call from the Justice Department, I think I'd be responding to those questions. | ||
| Now, before we continue our conversation, Congressman, I want to invite our audience to join in on the conversation. | ||
| Democrats, your line is 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans, your line is 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independents, your line is 202-748-8002. | ||
| Congressman, I want to play you a clip from Tuesday with Senator Kevin Kramer talking about what could happen if Jerome Powell says that he would resign. | ||
| Take a listen here. | ||
| Maybe pulling back, but maybe the point should be. | ||
| If you're the attorney for Jay Paul and you want to avoid an indictment, how about you go to Gene Pierrow and say, I'll make a deal. | ||
| I'll step down today if you'll drop the investigation today. | ||
| To me, that would be a win-win for everybody. | ||
| Well, I'd love that. | ||
| I mean, we've all talked about getting him out of there. | ||
| I mean, doesn't this give credence to the criticism that this investigation is one that is meant to pressure the chair to step down? | ||
| Well, it might be. | ||
| But again, I think you look at Powell's tenure, it's not exactly been a world of success. | ||
| He admitted in our committee that he had made mistakes with interest rates that allowed the inflation rate to get to about 9%, as you know. | ||
| This affects all of us across the board. | ||
| And he admitted that in committee, and he also admitted that the government overspent in the Biden years and it caused inflation. | ||
| And so I think the president's looking to make a change. | ||
| We hopefully that'll happen sooner than later. | ||
| Should Mr. Powell choose to stay, it's his decision. | ||
| But again, all he had to do was simply comply and say, we were spending too much money. | ||
| I need to show you why we're spending too much money. | ||
| Why would he ignore a simple request from a United States attorney? | ||
| It just doesn't make sense to me. | ||
| But his term is up in May. | ||
| Why not just wait? | ||
| for him to leave. | ||
| Well, I think it's also about accountability. | ||
| If you went in and you, and I said. | ||
| But Kramer just said that if it was him and he would tell his attorney just to step, just to say that he's going to resign for the investigation to go away. | ||
| So is that really about accountability? | ||
| This is a senator saying, this is what I might do. | ||
| This is not the attorney who called him over and over again and said, please provide the information. | ||
| We allocated X amount of money for you. | ||
| You spent a lot more than we thought you would. | ||
| Tell us why you spent so much money. | ||
| And instead of saying, you know what, you're right, I shouldn't have spent so much, or this is why we spent too much, he chose to ignore a United States attorney. | ||
| And we all know the power that United States attorneys have. | ||
| A lot of people went to jail for not complying in years past. | ||
| And I think Mr. Powell would solve a lot of problems if he would just be transparent and put out where they spent the money. | ||
| That's what I'd like to see as a new member of Congress. | ||
| And remember, that's what I'm used to. | ||
| In Florida, we put it all out in the sunshine. | ||
| And in Washington, we need more sunshine so we can make better decisions. | ||
| Because when you see how they spent money with USAID, some of these problems in Minnesota, the train program in California, all people want is transparency because people are working incredibly hard right now with higher prices and high taxes. | ||
|
Live Coverage Votes
00:00:32
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| And they're saying, why am I giving all these things? | ||
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unidentified
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us here for live coverage of votes in the U.S. House. | |
| Resolution 992 and Rule 18, the chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union for the further consideration of H.R. 7006. | ||
| Will the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Weber, kindly take the chair? | ||