Yellowhammer Times

U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama appeared on "The Bottom Line" with Dagen McDowell and Guy Benson to discuss his ongoing calls for President Trump to remove Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell from his position.

During the interview, McDowell introduced Tuberville by referencing his public statement: “Today’s a great day to fire Jerome Powell.” Benson noted the president's frustration with Powell, asking how long he should wait if inflation does not increase as expected.

Tuberville responded, “Yeah. Well, he’s playing god, is what he’s doing. And inflation is as low as it’s been in months. And by the way, he did lower rates right before the election—for Kamala Harris. But, yeah, FJP– ‘Fire Jerome Powell’. We put that out every day online, and we’ve gotten a lot of hits from that. He’s killing our farmers, our small businesses, and the middle class, because there’s no homes for sale. The problem is people liked that 3% interest rate they got years ago–back before everything went to hell in a handbasket. And now, it’s up to 7-8%. Nobody wants to sell. There’s no homes out there. So, he’s putting the middle class and small businesses and farmers in tough shape.”

McDowell pointed out that even market indicators are signaling a need for rate cuts: “Well, even the stock market, Senator, is telling him to cut rates, because the 2-year Treasury is well below–it’s at like 3.8%–well below the overnight lending rate that the Federal Reserve controls, which is at 4.25-4.5 [%]. I’ll tell you who’s gonna push him out. You don’t need to fire him and rattle the market. [Who is going to] push him out will be […] fellow Fed governors like Bowman, Waller, and Austan Goolsbee have all come out and said, ‘Yeah, we’re probably gonna need to cut rates in July.’ They’re pushing him and embarrassing him. And I venture a guess, they might want his job, and I can’t wait to see the infighting develop. That will just be the most delicious soap opera.”

Benson compared this internal debate within the Federal Reserve Board to a conclave.

Tuberville continued by saying internal disagreements are growing: “Yeah. Yeah. They’re pushing back right and left. We had Scott Bessent, the Secretary of Treasury, here for lunch today, and he spoke about the very same thing. They’re starting to infight a little bit. But at the end of the day, he’s playing politics. And he’s played politics. When I first got here 5 years ago, he came to my office and I asked him, you know, ‘Are you ever gonna raise rates?’ He waited forever to raise rates, you know when Joe Biden went in; then he kept raising them; now he's not even thinking about lowering them."

He also mentioned Miki Bowman: "Miki Bowman by the way–she's Vice Chair of [the Federal Reserve]. I've known her for a long time; she's very very good." Tuberville claimed she did not vote for rate increases before an election due to political considerations.

Tuberville argued that reducing interest rates could provide significant savings: "If he would drop 100 points down–which is basically one point today–that would save $300 or $400 billion dollars for American taxpayers for a year," adding concerns about high national debt.

Senator Tuberville serves on several Senate committees including Armed Services; Agriculture; Veterans’ Affairs; Health Education Labor & Pensions (HELP); and Aging.