Elizabeth Warren Swipes at Nancy Pelosi in NY Times Essay on How Dems Can Avoid Midterms Disaster
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) published an essay in the New York Times on Monday in which she argued Democrats must return to being “the party of working people” if they are to stave off disaster in the upcoming midterm elections this November.
“To put it bluntly: if we fail to use the months remaining before the elections to deliver on more of our agenda, Democrats are headed toward big losses in the midterms,” Warren wrote, noting that Democrats do best when they “show we understand the painful economic realities facing American families.”
The Massachusetts senator and 2020 presidential candidate went on to explain that polls note that the voting public has “identified corrupt government officials as a top concern.”
“They’re right,” she argued. “To tackle the urgent challenges we face — climate change, income inequality, systemic injustice — we must root out corruption. To start cleaning up government, members of Congress and their spouses shouldn’t be allowed to own or trade individual stocks.”
Warren went on to call out one of the leaders of her own party as being part of the problem and not the solution.
“Whether you’re a Republican senator or the Democratic speaker of the House, it is obvious to the American people that they should not be allowed to trade individual stocks and then vote on laws that affect those companies,” she wrote. “I have the strongest plan and the only bipartisan bill in the Senate to get it done.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who is also one of the wealthiest members of Congress, flip-flopped on banning members of Congress from trading stocks in January after receiving criticism for opposing the policy.
Warren equating Pelosi with a Republican senator, presumably referring to former Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) who was accused of trading on insider information he received during a Senate briefing, is a notable jab between leading Democrats and a stark indication of just how much Warren feels Democrats need to change their messaging heading into the midterms.
Warren, who has long espoused a message of fair play in the economy, doubled down on that rhetoric in the essay arguing:
We can stand up to the armies of lobbyists and P.R. flacks and tackle tax loopholes for the rich and powerful. About two-thirds of likely American voters — including a majority of Republicans — say it’s time for billionaires to pay more in taxes.
