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raphael warnock
'I'm Just Asking You a Factual Question': Warren Corners Trump's Fed Chair Pick on 2020 Election
“American monetary and bank safety policy will now depend on a demented ventriloquist in the White House," said one consumer watchdog.
Apr 21, 2026
Kevin Warsh, the financier picked by President Donald Trump to be the next chair of the US Federal Reserve, found himself tripped up by a seemingly simple question from Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
During a confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee, Warren (D-Mass.) said she wanted Warsh to demonstrate he had the prerequisite independence to serve as chairman of America's central bank.
"Independence takes courage," Warren informed Warsh. "Let's check out your independence and your courage."
She then asked Warsh if Trump lost the 2020 election to former President Joe Biden—a question numerous appointees of Trump have failed to answer correctly during their confirmation hearings.
"We try to keep politics, if I'm confirmed, out of the Federal Reserve..." Warsh began.
At this point, Warren interjected.
"I'm just asking you a factual question," she said. "I need to know, I need to measure your independence and your courage."
ELIZABETH WARREN: Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?
KEVIN WARSH: Uhm, we try to keep politics if I'm confirmed out of the Federal Reserve
WARREN: I'm just asking a factual question
WARSH: I believe this body certified the election
WARREN: That's not the question I'm… pic.twitter.com/AZvmIqZXhN
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 21, 2026
"Senator, I believe that [the US Senate] certified that election many years ago," said Warsh.
"That's not the question I'm asking," Warren shot back. "I'm asking, 'Did Donald Trump lose in 2020?'"
Warsh refused to directly answer the question, insisting that asking about the outcome of the election was outside the realm of monetary policy.
University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers took note of Warsh's response to Warren, and wrote in a social media post that it "raises real questions about whether Warsh is independent of the president and if he has the courage to tell hard truths."
Later in the hearing, Warren pressed Warsh on whether there was anything he would disagree with Trump about any aspect of his economic agenda, the financier responded with a joke about the president's comment that Warsh was straight out of "central casting."
"Quite adorable," the senator said sarcastically. "But you know, we need a Fed chair who is independent."
Warren wasn't the only senator to probe Warsh's ability to maintain his independence should he be confirmed as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) asked Warsh, who is a visiting scholar at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, to give a letter grade to the US economy.
Trump and top administration officials including Treasure Secretary Scott Bessent have insisted is strong and serving working families well even as the war in Iran has sent gas prices soaring and Trump's tariff policy has cost households more than $2,500 on average.
Warsh joked that modern universities practically require all students to get "A" grades, but Warnock nonetheless pressed him to give his own evaluation of the economy under Trump's stewardship.
"Well, if I gave a student anything other than an 'A,' the dean would summon me to his office because I would have hurt his self-image," Warsh replied.
WARNOCK: What grade would you give the American economy?
WARSH: Well, if i gave a student anything other than an A, the dean would summon me because I would've hurt his self-image
WARNOCK: Consumer confidence is at a record low. That's Americans' grade on the economy pic.twitter.com/3B5dOa2DKe
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 21, 2026
Warnock was not satisfied with Warsh's answer.
"Well, the Americans that I talk to, particularly in the state of Georgia," said Warnock, "who haven't had the benefit of attending some of these elite institutions... they're sitting around their kitchen tables trying to figure out how to put their kids through school."
Warnock then added that "regardless of how the markets are doing, consumer confidence is at a record low."
Bartlett Naylor, economist for Public Citizen, said on Tuesday that Warsh's confirmation hearing showed how fundamentally unfit he is to be chair of the Federal Reserve.
"Trump named Kevin Warsh because he won the sycophancy contest, threatening the independence of the nation’s most important economic institution," Naylor said. "At his nomination hearing, he failed to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election, affirming that loyalty, not facts, will govern his policy choices."
Naylor warned that, if Warsh is confirmed, then "American monetary and bank safety policy will now depend on a demented ventriloquist in the White House."
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Suspect in Custody After Five Soldiers Shot at Georgia's Fort Stewart
Sen. Raphael Warnock said he was "heartbroken to see the news of an active shooter incident at Fort Stewart today" and that he would "join all of Georgia as we pray for the safety of our service members, staff, and their families."
Aug 06, 2025
A U.S. Army sergeant is in custody as a suspect in a mass shooting at Fort Stewart, Georgia.
As reported by The Associated Press, the suspect opened fire on Wednesday morning and shot five of his fellow military personnel at Fort Stewart, one of the largest military bases in the U.S.
At this time, law enforcement officials have not identified the name of the suspect nor have they released specifics about the current conditions of the five soldiers who were shot. However, the base announced in a social media post that those wounded in the shooting have since been treated and transferred to Winn Army Community Hospital.
The shooting caused the entire base to go into lockdown for roughly an hour before law enforcement officials apprehended the suspect and determined there was no further threat to the community.
Several elected officials weighed in on the shooting shortly after the news broke. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) said he was "heartbroken to see the news of an active shooter incident" and that he would "join all of Georgia as we pray for the safety of our service members, staff, and their families."
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) also commented on the shooting in a post on X.
"My heart is with the loved ones of the victims from the shooting that took place at Fort Stewart in Georgia," he said . "Our service members deserve to be safe in the country they sacrifice so much for. We must work to end the gun violence epidemic that has reached every corner of our society."
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) said he was "heartbroken" to learn of the shooting and that his thoughts were "with the injured soldiers, their families, and the entire military community during this difficult time."
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Voting Rights Act 'On Life Support' Amid Right-Wing Attacks
"It's time for Congress to restore its full protections by passing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act," said one Democratic lawmaker.
Aug 06, 2025
As the Voting Rights Act turned 60 on Wednesday, advocates highlighted right-wing attacks on the landmark legislation and called on Congress to pass a long-stagnant bill aimed at restoring and strengthening one of the most important civil rights laws in U.S. history.
The VRA, signed into law in 1965 by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson amid a groundswell of civil rights activism, was meant to ensure that state and local governments could not "deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color."
However, the law has been eroded in recent decades by Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country, including through racially rigged and other gerrymandered congressional maps, restrictions on voter registration, reduction in early voting options, and voter identification laws. These measures disproportionately disenfranchise minority voters, and some GOP officials have admitted that they are intended to give Republican candidates an electoral edge.
In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a major blow to the VRA in Shelby County v. Holder, which eviscerated a key section of the law that required jurisdictions with a history of racist disenfranchisement to obtain federal approval prior to altering voting rules. In 2021, the nation's high court voted 5-4 in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee to uphold Arizona's voting restrictions—even as Chief Justice John Roberts acknowledged that they disproportionately affect minorities.
"Instead of anniversary toasts, election law experts are preparing eulogies for the landmark legislation."
Now, the Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority is poised to "end voting rights as we know them," as Mother Jones reporter Pema Levy put it Tuesday. That's because the justices said last week that they would rehear a case that could result in them striking down Section 2 of the VRA, what University of California, Los Angeles legal scholar Richard L. Hasen calls "the last remaining pillar" of the law.
"Instead of anniversary toasts, election law experts are preparing eulogies for the landmark legislation, which conservative lawyers have attacked on multiple fronts in recent years, after the U.S. Supreme Court took square aim at the statute's constitutionality last week," Jim Saksa wrote Tuesday for Democracy Docket.
As Hasen explained:
Louisiana v. Callais, the case that was the subject of last Friday's order, is a voting case over the drawing of the state's six congressional districts. Louisiana has a one-third Black population, but after the 2020 census the state Legislature drew a districting plan, passed over a Democratic governor's veto, that created only one district in which Black voters would be likely to elect their candidate of choice.
Before Callais, Black voters had successfully sued Louisiana in a case called Robinson v. Ardoin, arguing that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act required drawing a second congressional district giving Black voters that opportunity. Section 2 says minority voters should have the same chance as other voters to elect their candidates of choice, and courts have long used it to require new districts when there is a large and cohesive minority population concentrated in a given area, when white and minority voters choose different candidates, and when the minority has difficulty electing its preferred representatives.
However, a group of non-Black voters argued in a lawsuit that the consideration of race in creating a second minority-majority district violated the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause and the 15th Amendment's ban on federal and state governments denying citizens the right to vote based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
"To me, this is it," Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, a law professor at Indiana University Bloomington, told Democracy Docket. "I would bet my left arm that they will tell us that Section 2 is in violation of the 15th Amendment."
Civil rights defenders including numerous Democratic lawmakers urged Congress to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, legislation first introduced in 2021 whose sponsors said will "update and restore critical safeguards of the original Voting Rights Act."
"Sixty years ago today, the Voting Rights Act became law thanks to the perseverance of civil rights activists. Today, our sacred right to vote remains under attack," Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), one of the bill's primary sponsors, said on social media Wednesday. "We must protect our democracy and honor those who risked everything by passing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act."
Although the bill passed the then-Democrat controlled House of Representatives in 2021, it failed to pass the Senate and a subsequent bid to advance the legislation failed the following year.
Calling for passage of the bill, Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.)—whose home state played a critical role in the civil rights struggle—said on the social media site Bluesky that the VRA "is on life support after being gutted by the Supreme Court and far-right judges."
The Voting Rights Act was signed into law exactly 60 years ago. But today, it is on life support after being gutted by the Supreme Court and far-right judges.It’s time for Congress to restore its full protections by passing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. 🗳️
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— Rep. Terri A. Sewell (@sewell.house.gov) August 6, 2025 at 6:35 AM
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said on Bluesky that "60 years ago today, the Voting Rights Act became law. Now, we have an administration conducting voter suppression in real time. In Texas, Republicans are trying to gut our democracy by redrawing maps to erase five Democratic seats—before a single vote is cast."
"The fight continues," Crockett added. "We owe it to those who marched, bled, and believed to keep pushing until every voice is heard and every vote counts."
The ACLU said: "Democracy can't wait. Congress must protect our voting rights at the federal level by passing the reintroduced John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act."
However, passing the bill will be next to impossible, given Republican control of both houses of Congress and President Donald Trump in the White House. That doesn't mean voting rights defenders should give up, Legal Defense Fund president and director-counsel Janai Nelson stressed Wednesday.
"If we are to continue the pursuit of the multiracial democracy that the VRA set in motion 60 years ago and if we are to honor our republican form of government founded on representation by the people, we must be unwavering in our commitment to fulfill the promise of Selma, refuse to cede any further ground, and mobilize in support of equal voting rights and fair elections," Nelson said.
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