Fed-up Senate Republican uncorks ultimatum for Trump — threatening president's own nominee

A GOP senator said he would like to vote to confirm the nominated chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, but demanded the Department of Justice first back off.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told Warsh during his confirmation hearing on Tuesday that "the only thing I’ve found the least bit odd about you is you’ve never watched an episode of Seinfeld," but he can't vote to approve the Trump appointee because of a DOJ "investigation" into current Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.

"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," Tillis said. "We have got to end this investigation. Big DOJ didn’t know about it, the president didn’t know about it, let’s get rid of this investigation so I can support your confirmation. Mr. Warsh."

The Federal Reserve has faced GOP scrutiny recently for the increased cost of renovating buildings in Washington, D.C. Tillis mentioned the Martin, Eccles and East buildings, which are all part of the Fed's D.C. campus. Tillis defended the increased costs at the hearing by noting that price estimates went up by 69 percent because "asbestos was identified. Remediation was required. Pylons had to be built underneath the building."

Trump has pressed for an investigation, but the DOJ has said it doesn't have evidence of misconduct by Powell, nor has it publicly said it has an ongoing investigation.

"If we put everybody in prison in federal government that had had a budget go over, we’d have to reserve an area roughly the size of Texas for a penal colony because of the way government projects work," Tillis argued, adding that the Fed's increased costs are "not acceptable, unfortunate, but legitimate."

More to the point for Tillis, he doesn't want to approve Warsh out of fear that it will empower anyone at the Fed with an axe to grind.

“It sets a precedent that lets somebody in the bowels of DOJ determine who to put pressure on,” the Wall Street Journal quoted Tillis saying after the hearing. “If this investigation, which, on its face, looks bogus, wasn't happening, we’d be voting to send Mr. Warsh out of committee next week or the week after.”