President Donald Trump continues to seek to bend national policy to his will — and he keeps hitting roadblocks. Former presidential candidate Herman Cain has now withdrawn from consideration for the board overseeing the Federal Reserve after Trump had announced that he intended to push for his inclusion, although that never included an actual formal nomination. Although Trump unsurprisingly didn’t mention it in his announcement of the withdrawal, Cain faced the same issue that upended his 2012 presidential bid — substantive sexual misconduct allegations from four women who worked with the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, which he led at the time.
Trump announced the withdrawal with a straightforward message on Twitter, offering:
‘My friend Herman Cain, a truly wonderful man, has asked me not to nominate him for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board. I will respect his wishes. Herman is a great American who truly loves our Country!’
Besides the scrutiny over the allegations themselves, Cain was also facing a threat from one of those to have already revealed details of sordid interactions to publicly reveal details of his anatomy if he proceeded with his nomination. That woman — Ginger White — asserted at a press conference, directly addressing Cain:
‘It’s time for you to be held accountable for your actions. Today more than ever, women are fighting back. We’re not going to back down, we’re not afraid.’
She has alleged that she had a 13-year relationship with Cain marked, apparently, by sexual harassment. There’s an easy reference point for Cain and his allies to have considered in dealing with White’s assertions of her prepared next steps. President Trump faced a similar backlash from adult film star Stormy Daniels, with whom he had a brief affair.
Similarly to White, Cain accuser Sharon Bialek was also ready to testify under oath about an array of details of her interactions with the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza according to high-profile lawyer Gloria Allred, who represented the women back when their claims first emerged and has again joined their side. She appeared alongside them at a press conference last Thursday.
The backlash their appearance exemplified had already had serious repercussions for the pending Cain nomination. A full four Republican Senators asserted they were in opposition, including Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Cory Gardner (Colo.), Mitt Romney (Utah), and Kevin Cramer (N.D.). Their collective opposition meant the Senate GOP could not get Cain’s nomination through on their own, and it doesn’t take a political scientist to estimate the chance of a Democrat ever getting on board was about as close to zero as possible.
Trump had wanted Cain to get on the Federal Reserve board in the wake of criticism of its policies, particularly its interest rate spikes. Trump complained that their pressure on the flow of money would depress the key economic indicators that he’s pointed to as evidence of his supposed success so many times, despite the possible inability of the economy to sustain the cash pumping into corporations he’s going for. He’s still got another Fed Reserve board nominee on the table to try and steer it his direction — the controversial, far-right Stephen Moore.
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