US elections: Won't interfere with Fed in rebuke to Trump, says Harris

The Fed is an independent entity, and as president, I would never interfere in the decisions that the Fed makes, said Kamala Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris said she would respect the Federal Reserve’s independence, seeking to draw a contrast with her 2024 Republican rival Donald Trump, and that she plans to roll out elements of her economic agenda in the coming week.

Harris was asked about Trump’s recent comments that presidents should have some say over interest rates and monetary policy – a move that would upend the longstanding practice of Fed independence of political actors.

Harris said she could not disagree “more strongly” with that stance.

“The Fed is an independent entity, and as president, I would never interfere in the decisions that the Fed makes,” she told reporters Saturday in Phoenix at the end of a campaign stop in swing-state Arizona.

Trump has long expressed frustration that the executive branch doesn’t have more sway over interest rates. At a press conference on Thursday, he criticized Fed Chairman Jerome Powell saying the central bank chief had been a “little bit too early and a little bit too late” in adjusting rates.

The former president said he “made a lot of money,” was “very successful” and thought he had “a better instinct than, in many cases, people that would be on the Federal Reserve or the chairman.”

Powell has pledged not to let political pressure influence decision-making at the central bank. US presidents for decades have traditionally avoided publicly criticizing the Fed over interest rates.

Harris, the Democratic nominee, also said she plans to being rolling out her policy platform in the next week, with a focus on the economy and keeping costs down. 

Voter frustration with President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy is a major political liability for Harris’ campaign as high prices have battered American households and overshadowed the administration’s efforts to highlight policies aimed at bolstering domestic manufacturing and infrastructure spending.

Harris held a rally on Friday in Arizona, one of the battleground states that will decide November’s election, before heading to an event in Las Vegas Saturday — part of a campaign swing with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, her running mate, aimed at seizing on fresh momentum for her White House bid.

Polls show that Harris has erased Trump’s polling lead that he held for much of the summer with the candidates off on a three-month sprint to Election Day.