Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts harshly criticized President Obama and his economic advisers during a long interview with Salon that focuses on economic issues. At one point, the interviewer, Thomas Frank, mentions how he and his friends “are pretty disappointed” with Obama’s track record on protecting the little guy from moneyed interests. Warren said she “understands” the frustration, making it clear she feels the same way.
“He picked his economic team and when the going got tough, his economic team picked Wall Street,” Warren said. Frank answers that it seems the economic team “just about ever time” sided with Wall Street.” Warren agrees:
That’s right. They protected Wall Street. Not families who were losing their homes. Not people who lost their jobs. Not young people who were struggling to get an education. And it happened over and over and over.
At the same time, Warren does have some praise for Obama, saying she’s convinced that if he hadn’t been president “we would not have a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau” because “he was the one who refused to throw the agency under the bus and made sure that his team kept the agency alive and on the table.”
