Klobuchar: There’s a reason we have an independent Fed

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who sits on the Senate Commerce Committee, weighed in on President Trump’s recent fight against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, noting that there’s a reason the Fed is independent.

Klobuchar joined CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, where she spoke about the administration’s efforts to speed up the Fed cutting interest rates to ease the pressure on the economy amid Trump’s tariffs.

“The law is very clear on the chair of the Federal Reserve. It says that he can only be fired for a cause that has been defined as things like malfeasance or criminality,” Klobuchar said. “You’re not going to find that with Jerome Powell.”

Trump has slammed Powell after he warned the economy was facing stagflation due to the president’s sweeping tariffs. He’s argued that Powell’s termination “cannot come fast enough.”

The president has insisted that oil prices are down, along with the price of groceries, despite markets sinking after Powell’s prediction.

Powell argued that the economy could be “moving away” from its goals of stable prices and maximum employment, and he said he didn’t think there would be “any progress” for the rest of the year.

Trump nominated Powell to lead the Fed in 2017, and his term does not expire until next year, but the administration’s top economic adviser said they are looking for ways to fire the chair.

Klobuchar noted Powell will be staying in office as chair of the Fed until next May and gets to stay on the board until 2028.

“There’s a reason we have an independent Fed,” Klobuchar said. “And it has served us well through many crises, through downturns, through depressions, through the pandemic. They’re able to respond and stabilize things”

“What Jerome Powell is doing right now is warning that these tariffs are having a huge destabilizing effect on our economy and hurting everyday people,” she continued. “And that’s going to affect decisions that the Fed makes.”