Senior Republican clears path for next Fed chair
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What recent event involves an alleged Trump shooter?
Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Monday, April 27th, and this is your FT News Briefing. Kevin Warsh just cleared a major hurdle to become Fed chair, and we look at a cybersecurity AI model that could be too effective for its own good. And if this gets into the wrong hands, that could be really dangerous. But first, an update on the alleged Trump shooter. I'm Sonia Hudson, and here's the news you need to start your day.
The man suspected of firing shots during the White House Correspondents' Dinner is set to be charged in federal court today. U.S. President Donald Trump was attending the black tie event on Saturday at the Washington Hilton when multiple shots were heard. City officials said a suspect had run toward the hotel's ballroom entrance but was quickly apprehended by Secret Service officers.
What hurdles did Kevin Warsh face for Fed chair confirmation?
Authorities say the alleged shooter was targeting Trump and other administration officials. But U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanch said yesterday they're still looking into the motive. Blanch told ABC News that investigators had searched the suspect's home in California. Trump told Fox News that the suspect had written a, quote, manifesto referencing administration officials and that family members had alerted the police beforehand.
U.S. Republican Senator Tom Tillis said yesterday he'll allow Trump's pick for federal reserve chair to face a confirmation vote. Tillis led a group of senators in blocking Kevin Warsh's nomination. He was concerned about a federal criminal investigation into the current chair, Jay Powell. Tillis and others saw it as part of a larger assault on the central bank's independence.
Why was the criminal investigation into Jay Powell dropped?
But prosecutors dropped the probe on Friday. Here to tell us what comes next is the FT's U.S. economics editor, Claire Jones. Hi, Claire.
Hi, Sonia.
So, Claire, just to back up for a minute, remind us what this probe was all about.
So the Department of Justice said it needed to investigate Fed Chair Jay Powell's handling of of a 2.5 billion renovation of the Fed's headquarters. They said they were looking into whether or not he'd misled Congress over the project, which has cost overruns of around $700 million. However, Powell denied the allegations and went as far as to say what the probe was actually about was pressure from the Trump administration for Fed officials such as himself to cut US borrowing costs.
What is the significance of Senator Thom Tillis's actions?
There was this dramatic reversal, of course, that we saw on Friday. And what that really spoke to was just an appreciation from the White House that the They were not going to get Powell out of the job of Fed chair and Trump's pick to replace him, Kevin Walsh, in on time unless this probe went away.
So Tillis essentially got what he wanted. He got the Department of Justice to drop this criminal investigation into Powell. And as a result of that, has now said that he is not going to block Walsh's nomination. Does this mean that Walsh will get confirmed?
I think it almost certainly does. Tillis did have the blocking vote on the Senate Banking Committee. They'll now vote on Wednesday and probably vote in favor of Walsh moving to a vote on the Senate floor.
What challenges will Kevin Warsh face as Fed chair?
The sense we're getting is that all of the Republicans who had objections to Walsh Those objections were really centering on the probe. And now that the probe looks as though it's gone away, they're likely to support Walsh. There's 53 Republicans in the Senate at the moment. So it looks like Walsh will pass the crucial hurdle of 51 quite easily.
Claire, something I'm wondering about is, is there anything stopping the Trump administration from reopening the investigation into Powell after they get what they wanted, which is Warsh getting confirmed?
So the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Janine Pirro's remarks on Friday did raise a little bit of concern because she did mention in a post on social media site X that she will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so. The sense we've got from remarks that Tillis made yesterday was that he'd had assurances from the DOJ
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What recent event involves an alleged Trump shooter?
0:04–1:07
2
What hurdles did Kevin Warsh face for Fed chair confirmation?
1:07–2:03
3
Why was the criminal investigation into Jay Powell dropped?
2:03–2:58
4
What is the significance of Senator Thom Tillis's actions?
2:58–3:49
5
What challenges will Kevin Warsh face as Fed chair?
3:49–5:20
6
How are central banks responding to inflation concerns?
5:20–6:30
7
What risks does Anthropic's Mythos AI model present?
6:30–7:26
8
How is AI impacting cybersecurity and potential threats?
7:26–12:00