US News

Prez’s Summers-lovin’ push on Dems

WASHINGTON — President Obama came roaring to the defense of Larry Summers yesterday — a sign Summers is still much in the mix to be the next chairman of the powerful Federal Reserve Board despite an active campaign against him by fellow Democrats.

Obama, who made a rare visit to Capitol Hill yesterday, got grilled on Summers in a meeting with House Democrats, then brought the issue up himself in a separate meeting with senators.

“He gave a full-throated defense of Larry Summers,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) after the presidential pep talk.

Obama told lawmakers that Summers had been “badly treated by the left” and defended Summers’ “record of helping save the economy,” Connolly continued.

Summers, the former Harvard president, treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, and Obama economic adviser, appears to have won Obama’s continued loyalty for helping him craft a response to the economic crisis of 2008. “The guy gave me good advice,” Obama explained.