Adding to something of a trend that's emerged among President Biden's nominees facing Senate confirmation, Sarah Bloom Raskin withdrew herself from consideration for a key oversight post within the Federal Reserve on Tuesday, just hours after Senate Democrats pledged to move her doomed confirmation ahead.
In a nearly three-page letter to President Biden dated March 15th, Raskin stated "with a heavy heart" that she would "hereby withdraw my candidacy" to become the Federal Reserve Board's vice-chair for supervision and tripled down on her radical climate alarmism. "I fear, however, many in and outside the Senate are unwilling to acknowledge the economic complications of climate change and the toll it has placed, and will continue to place, on Americans," she wrote.
"Addressing the transition of the economy as it grapples with the effects of climate change is critical to the future of American prosperity," she said, echoing the Biden administration's line that unaffordable and scarce fossil fuel energy is just a necessary pain while America undergoes an energy transition to alternative, more expensive, and less reliable sources of energy.
Raskin then sought to re-frame her radical statements that sunk her nomination as merely "frank public discussion of climate change and the economic costs associated with it" and claimed her position that "the perils of climate change" be a factor in decisions made by the Federal Reserve "is not a novel or radical position."
As Katie reported on Monday, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced that he would not vote to confirm Raskin due to her radical stance on American energy policy and stated belief that banking systems should behave like woke climate alarmist activists and deny oil and gas companies the capital they need to innovate and do business. Manchin explained his opposition to Biden's nominee in a statement that read, in part:
Now more than ever, the United States must have policy leaders and economic experts who are focused on the most pressing issues facing the American people and our nation - specifically rising inflation and energy costs. I have carefully reviewed Sarah Bloom Raskin's qualifications and previous public statements. Her previous public statements have failed to satisfactorily address my concerns about the crucial importance of financing an all-of-the-above energy policy to meet our nation's critical energy needs. I have come to the conclusion that I am unable to support her nomination to serve as a member of the Federal Reserve Board.
This is hardly the first time Senator Manchin has blocked radical Democrats from forcing their activist policies and personnel through the Senate, but it's another good reminder that for all of Joe Biden's campaign lecturing about being a moderate unifier, his nominations have repeatedly proven to be too radical for Democrats like Manchin, and only serve to unify Democrats and Republicans against his nominees.
Joe Manchin right now: #Raskin #Fed pic.twitter.com/Xl81RyRaZe
— Matt Vespa (@mVespa1) March 15, 2022
Previously, other radical Biden nominees were blocked by bipartisan opposition including Saule Omarova who withdrew her nomination to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and David Chipman whose nomination to lead the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives was also defeated.
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