Trump Fed Nominee Takes Heat over Past Statements About Women’s Sports

Stephen Moore, President Trump’s nominee for the Fed, is battling against accusations that he dismissed women’s sports in columns written 13 years ago.

Now, the White House says it is “reviewing” those old columns.

“Certainly we’re reviewing those comments, and when we have an update on that front we’ll let you know,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Monday, according to The Hill.

Moore has been battling against criticism over his columns written in the early 2000’s that were supposed to be off-handed satire in which he suggested that women should get out of college sports.

“Here’s the rule change I propose: No more women refs, no women announcers, no women beer vendors, no women anything,” he wrote of college sports in 2002.

On Sunday, Moore told ABC This Week that he was “apologetic” over the columns.

“They were humor columns, but some of them weren’t funny, and so I am apologetic. I’m embarrassed by some of those things I wrote,” Moore told George Stephanopoulos.

But Moore also noted that he thought the attacks on his decade-old humor columns was an absurd distraction from his qualifications on economic matters. “I’ll debate anybody on economics… Let’s make this about the economy,” he said.

“What happened was this kind of smear campaign, this character assassination and it began two or three weeks ago,” Moore said of the attacks on his old columns. He went on adding, “I mean, you’re not going to believe this, but the media unsealed my divorce from 10 years ago and started reporting details of my divorce which was against the wishes, by the way, of myself and my ex-wife who have a very good solid relationship with today.”

So far, President Donald Trump is supportive of Moore and top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow added that the White House is standing behind the nominee.

“We’re still behind him, and he’s going through the process of vetting,” Kudlow said Monday.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.