Trump Nominee Left Speechless on Live TV in Brutal Moment

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2:24Michael Popok:You want to see the difference between a courageous independent Federal Reserve chair in Jay Powell and what attempted to pass for one during a Senate confirmation hearing with Kevin Warsh, Donald Trump's pick to replace Jay Powell? I'll make it easy on you. I'll show you a few clips from Kevin Warsh. I'll contrast them with a few clips from Jay Powell and you be the judge as to who you want to run our central bank. Who do you think is going to be independent and take on Donald Trump? Kevin Warsh couldn't even concede in response to a very simple question he knew was coming, that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.

3:05Michael Popok:Can't you at least admit that Donald Trump, you know, lost the election? I love the way Elizabeth Warren today, during the confirmation hearing of the 25-person Senate Banking Committee framed it like, all right, let's talk about your courage and your independence. Did Donald Trump win or lose the 2020 election? Play the clip. I'll take that as it always will. I would be redeeming my assets before I take office. Donald Trump has made clear that he does not want an independent Fed. In fact, he has said, and I quote, anybody that disagrees with me will never be Fed chairman. And he's made clear that you are his sock puppet, saying last week that interest rates will drop, quote, when Kevin gets in.

3:45Yeah, I think they do. Not when economic conditions change, we'll get lower rates. Not when the economy needs it. Nope. He said, when my guy, Kevin Warsh, is in there, we'll get the interest rates that I, Donald Trump, wants. So independence takes courage. Let's check out your independence and your courage. We'll start easy. Mr. Warsh, did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election? We try to keep politics, if I'm confirmed, out of the federal reserve. I'm just asking you a factual question. I need to know, I need to measure your independence and your courage. Senator, I believe that this body certified that election many years ago.

4:26That's not the question I'm asking. I'm asking, did Donald Trump lose in 2020? Man, I'm suggesting you in 2020, the Fed made a huge inflation problem and you certified the election. So let me ask you another question. In our meeting, you -

4:41Michael Popok:Went downhill from there, everybody. See, the way that Kevin Warsh is trying to explain it is he's saying, well, we, the independence of the Federal Reserve is something that's earned. And as long as we don't get political, then we should be independent. What are you talking about? Are you watching what's happening? It's not the Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve is political against Donald Trump. They're not playing politics. They're playing numbers, statistics. They're playing inflation numbers, economic numbers, job creation numbers, consumer confidence numbers, business buyer numbers, import numbers, export numbers, trade numbers.

5:19Michael Popok:That's what they're playing. They're not playing politics. They're not playing what Donald Trump is playing, Russian roulette with our economy. They're not getting dragged into it. But he continues down that road when they ask him to be independent. Here's another example of him saying, well, I'm not going to take sides in this particular issue. Play the clip about Lisa Cook. In August of 2025, President Trump tried to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook for unsubstantiated allegations widely believed to be politically motivated. Thankfully, both a federal district court and the district of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Governor Cook, preventing her from being fired while the investigation proceeds.

6:08This is a landmark test for independence. Now, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh said allowing Cook's firing to go forward would weaken, if not shatter, the independence of the Federal Reserve. So I would like to ask you, will you commit to defending Governor Cook's tenure as Chairman Powell has done? Senator, it was a pleasure to meet you in your office and spend time with you. As I said to you then, I'll repeat here to the broader committee. If I stand for anything, it's the Fed should stay in its lane. As I understand that matter, it's pending before the United States Supreme Court. I think it's inappropriate for me to weigh in on that, especially because in the event that I am confirmed, I could be a party to that matter.

6:54Well, I disagree with Mr. Walsh. I disagree with you. This is your future colleague who is confirmed by both this committee and this Senate to serve her country. Chairman Powell has defended her tenure. And your answer to this is you will not defend her. Is that correct? No, Senator, that's not my answer. My answer is there's a pending case before the Supreme Court, the results of which I think we're going to hear about soon. If confirmed by this body, I will follow the Constitution, the Supreme Court law and the best of the Fed's tradition. Let me ask you this. And do you agree or disagree with Justice Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, who said that her firing would weaken, if not shatter, the Fed's independence?

7:36Do you agree with Justice Kavanaugh? So I took a constitutional law class, but I wouldn't say I'm worthy of being a Supreme Court justice. What I can say is fended independence means everything to me. And that's exactly what I would try to do if I'm confirmed. Well, I'd like to move on to the criminal investigation of Chairman Powell. The Trump administration could have taken many off ramps to end what is a ridiculous exercise. Instead, they have doubled down.

8:03Michael Popok:He can't even defend a current member of the Board of Governors who's been bashed by Donald Trump over and over again in his quest to try to take over the Federal Reserve. And he says, well, there's politics on both sides. There isn't politics on both sides, and that's the problem. Now, Mr. Warsh, if you want to see what a confident, independent, courageous leader looks like, take a look at Jay Powell, who you plan to replace, or you'd like to replace. So the night for, let's start with the night, for instance, that Jay Powell was accused of crimes by the Trump administration in order to get him to leave his job.

8:42Michael Popok:Did he leave? No, he defended the independence of the Federal Reserve. Play the clip. Good evening. On Friday, the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas, threatening a criminal indictment related to my testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June. That testimony concerned, in part, a multi-year project to renovate historic Federal Reserve office buildings. I have deep respect for the rule of law and for accountability in our democracy. No one, certainly not the Chair of the Federal Reserve, is above the law. But this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the Administration's threats and ongoing pressure.

9:27This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings. It is not about Congress's oversight role. The Fed, through testimony and other public disclosures, made every effort to keep Congress informed about the renovation project. Those are pretexts. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President. This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions, or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.

10:11I have served at the Federal Reserve under four administrations, Republicans and Democrats alike. In every case, I have carried out my duties without political fear or favor focused solely on our mandate of price stability and maximum employment. Public service sometimes requires standing firm in the face of threats. I will continue to do the job the Senate confirmed me to do with integrity and a commitment to serving the American people. Thank you. And yet you've got this guy who won't even tell the American public

10:49Michael Popok:what his connections to Epstein are. Play the Epstein clip. It has been plagued by deeply disturbing ethics scandals in recent years involving at least six Fed officials. So it's critical that the next chair have no financial conflicts, none. You have more than$100 million in investments that you have refused to disclose to ethics officials and to the public. So let me ask, do the Juggernaut Fund or the THSDFS LLC invest in any companies affiliated with President Trump or his family, companies that have facilitated money laundering, Chinese-controlled companies, or financing vehicles established by Jeffrey Epstein?

11:39Senator Warren, thank you. So let me first share a point of agreement with you. The Fed has two tools. One is its monetary policy, and the second is its credibility. And the scandals that you talked about, the ethics problems you talked about, went to the core of the credibility that has hurt the Fed. Could you answer my question, please? I ask. You have$100 million in undisclosed assets. And what I'm asking is, are any of those with this outfit that invests in companies affiliated with President Tromper's family, companies that have facilitated money laundering, Chinese-controlled companies, or financing vehicles set up by Jeffrey Epstein?

12:22It's a yes or no question. Senator, I've worked tirelessly with the ethics officials at the Office of Government Ethics. Yes, and you have not revealed$100 million in assets. And have agreed, Senator, to sell all of my financial assets, including the Duquesne assets. Are you refusing to tell us if you have investments, for example, in vehicles set up to advance Jeffrey Epstein? Is that what you're telling us? You just won't tell us? Senator, what I'm telling you is that those assets that you represent as juggernaut will be sold if I'm confirmed before I take office and sign the oath of office.

12:59Let me follow up on that. Will you at least disclose how you plan to disclose and divest these secret assets? I'm sure you understand that the public might question your motives if, for example, billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller, who you honored in your opening statement, and who makes a living guessing what the Fed will do next, cuts you a massive check for$100 million as you take the oath of office to become the new Federal Reserve chair. Senator, as you know, it sounds like your fight might not be with me, but the Office of Government Ethics, I have come to full agreement with them and have agreed to divest all of those assets, I'm asking you a very straightforward question, Mr.

13:47Michael Popok:Walsh, and that is... By contrast, you've got the current Federal Reserve Chair, Jay Powell, who extols the virtue of the independence of the Federal Reserve and why it protects our economy. Here's Jay Powell giving a tutorial. Are you starting to see the difference between this sycophant that's trying to do anything and say anything to get to be the head of the Federal Reserve and Jay Powell? Play the clip. The point of independence is not to protect policymakers or anything like that. It just is that every advanced economy democracy in the world has come around to this common practice. It's just an institutional arrangement that has served the people well.

14:34And that is to have a separation between, to not have direct elected official control over the setting of monetary policy. And the reason is that monetary policy can be used, through an election cycle to affect the economy in a way that will be politically worthwhile. So this isn't, I'm not talking about the US context. This is every advanced economy, democracy of any size. So it's a good practice. It's pretty much everywhere among countries that look at all like the United States. And I think if you lose that, it's, first of all, it would be hard to restore the credibility of the institution if people lose their faith that we're making decisions, you know, only on the basis of our assessment of what's best for everyone, for the wide public, rather than trying to benefit one group or another.

15:24If you lose that, it's going to be hard to retain it. And we haven't lost it. I don't believe we will. I certainly hope we won't. But it's very important. And the reason it's important is that it's enabled central banks generally not to be perfect, but to serve the public well.

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17:01Michael Popok:Go to shopify.com slash legal AF. That's shopify.com slash legal AF. Now, at the end of the day, Kevin Warsh has a problem. This problem is called, besides Kevin Warsh and Donald Trump, he's got a Tom Tillis problem. The senator from North Carolina, who's not running for re-election, doesn't care about being primaried against, he has made it clear that as long as the ballroom, sorry, I got the other bullshit real estate deal confused. As long as there is a criminal case against the Federal Reserve and Jay Powell related to some cost overruns related to the remodeling of two giant buildings that are 100 years old in Washington, he's not going to vote to confirm Kevin Warsh.

17:51Michael Popok:In fact, he didn't even ask a question of Kevin Warsh. He spent his entire allotted time tearing apart the criminal case brought by Jeanine Pirro for Donald Trump against Jay Powell. Play the clip. The problem that I have here is that we had some U.S. attorney with a dream or assistant U.S. attorney thinking it would be cute to bring Chair Powell under an investigation just a few months before the position was going to be open. This happened this year. Normal course and speed. Here's how it works at the Fed. February or March, May the 15th, the term would have expired. We'd be having this hearing.

18:31You'd be getting confirmed. Custom also suggests that the sitting chair, even though he has two years left on his term, would have exited. But instead, we have somebody who thinks a building project that went over by about$700 million with a lot of what seemed to be justifications for it are holding up this whole process. It sounds like to me somebody over in the DOJ didn't even check with the boss. The boss said on the same night that I said, I can't go forward until this bogus investigation is done. We've said he didn't know anything about it. So we've got people in DOJ over in the D.C. circuit or the D.C.

19:10district doing these investigations. We have got to end this investigation. Big DOJ didn't know about it. The president didn't know about it.

19:18Michael Popok:Let's get rid of this investigation so I can support your confirmation. Now, the way that committee works, there's 25 members on that committee. 13 Republican, 12 Democrat. If Tom Tillis sides with the Democrats, Kevin Warsh doesn't have the votes. He'll lose 13 to 12 the other way. Can Tom Tillis be appeased? He's only demanded one thing. One thing. He's demanded that the criminal case be ended. Now, he doesn't blame Donald Trump for it. He's still a Republican. and blames Janine Pirro, who's trying out for the attorney general job. But there's another angle that I think Elizabeth Warren was getting at when she asked at the very top of this hot take, I played the clip of Elizabeth Warren basically establishing that Kevin Warsh is an election denier.

20:17Michael Popok:Because Tom Tillis has also said out loud, because he's also on the Judiciary Committee, that he will not vote to confirm any attorney general candidate for Donald Trump who's an election denier. I think that's where Elizabeth Warren was going with her cross-examination of Mr. Warsh. What's going to happen next? Well, I assume there's going to be a push for a vote. If I were Senator Thune, the Senate Majority Leader, I wouldn't push for that anytime soon until they're sure they got Tillis on board. Could Tillis fold and they offer him something else and he decides to give in? It's possible. Lord knows Susan Collins of Maine flipped all the time.

21:04Michael Popok:But Tillis seems, as you saw from that clip, to be digging in. And if he's digging in, they're going to have to drop the investigation. Now, they should just let sleeping dogs lie. The criminal investigation in its current form has already been killed off by Chief Judge Boesberg of the D.C. federal court, who ruled and quashed the subpoenas and ruled there was no evidence to support a prosecution, that a prosecution against Jay Powell was animated by animus and hatred and to harass. That was the primary purpose, not any legitimate law enforcement purpose. They should just take the loss, right?

21:42Michael Popok:Take the knee. It's like the lottery. It's like the teams, you know, at the end of the NBA, trying to get the top lottery pick. Just lose the game. Then you'll get Tom Tillis' vote. Then he'll vote to confirm Kevin Walsh as feckless and useless as he appears to be. Now, what happens? We gave the last tutorial about the Federal Reserve here wearing my Wall Street hat. They rule by majority vote. Currently, Walsh would only replace another Republican, so it would still be four Democrats and three Republicans on the committee. Jay Powell was a Trump appointment, but we see him as a free spirit now.

22:21Michael Popok:So it would be four to three against Trump. That locks in the Federal Reserve through 2028 in Donald Trump's time there. If that holds, and he's not able to get rid of Lisa Cook for purported mortgage fraud, or Jay Powell leaves before 2028 when his full term is over, if that holds, Trump cannot control interest rates through Kevin Warsh because Kevin Warsh is just one of 12 votes on the Federal Open Markets Committee made up of the seven members of the Board of Governors and five that are taken from the regional Federal Reserve Banks on a rotating basis. It's a majority rule. You got to have seven votes.

23:00Michael Popok:The most I've seen so far that voted for interest rate cut when everybody else didn't want it was three votes. Maybe you get four votes, but it's still, it would be four to eight. And that would mean interest rates would stay where they were. Warsh would have to persuade people he'd have to pick up six more votes to get control of the Federal Open Markets Committee, not likely. So frankly, this may just be changing of the bedsheets here, if you will, at the Federal Reserve with Kevin Walsh's arrival, unless there is another thing that happens. Lisa Cook's term is until 2038. That's how long those terms run.

23:43Michael Popok:Jay Powell's term is till 2028, and the others are beyond that. So that would mean that Trump would not get control of the Federal Reserve, all things being equal. You see the same thing that he's doing Trump over at the Supreme Court, trying to get control of the Supreme Court for the next 20, 30 years by getting Alito and Thomas to head for the exit, allowing him to put into 40-year-olds or 50-year-olds to control the court six to three for the next 20 years or so. It's the same playbook. This is what you do when you got effectively a going out of business sale for Donald Trump and you're a short timer and you know your midterms are going to crush you, you do all this maximum damage that you can do with these institutions that you still control.

24:30Michael Popok:We'll continue to follow it all right here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. Take a minute, come over to Legal AF YouTube channel, hit the free subscribe button. Until my next report, I'm Michael Popak.

24:50Michael Popok:oral argument. Come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Where? Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.

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