Elizabeth Warren — who hauled in an eye-popping $5.7 million the last three months of 2011 — refused to swear off Wall Street money yesterday, instead claiming that any money she gets from deep-pocketed financiers is coming from those who “want reform.”“There are people on Wall Street who actually believe we need better rules, fairer rules,” Warren said last night as she toured small businesses in Davis Square in Somerville.
“That’s what I stand for. I’ve gone toe-to-toe with these financial institutions. A lot of people understand if you don’t have tough rules and a tough cop on the beat, the whole system is going to come down around us.”
Warren, who has portrayed herself as a Wall Street opponent and a pioneer of the Occupy movement, has acknowledged receiving donations from Wall Street financiers. Last night, she refused to reveal how much of her massive campaign cash haul came from financial execs and instead accused Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown of being Wall Street’s candidate.
“The Wall Street guys have been meeting aggressively to say, ‘How many different ways can we fund Scott Brown to make sure Elizabeth Warren does not go to the United States Senate?’” she said.
Colin Reed, a spokesman for Senator Scott Brown, didn’t mince words when slamming the Democratic Senate candidate’s duplicitous remarks.
“Professor Warren is a serial hypocrite. She attacks Wall Street while she’s taking their campaign cash. Now she’s attacking Scott Brown for outside ads that he has condemned and she has cheered on. You don’t need to be a Harvard professor to see through Warren’s political doublespeak.”
Well said, sir. Indeed, Elizabeth Warren does in fact pose a significant threat to Scott Brown’s chances of winning reelection and, for reasons unbeknownst to me, continues to generate support throughout the commonwealth. Her campaign, for example, procured millions of dollars in donations from at least 23,000 Massachusetts residents last quarter. That said, the former Obama official and Harvard professor built (and continues to build) her political career by explicitly demonizing Wall Street and positioning herself as an advocate for the middle class. In short, by her own admission, the American people (and more importantly, Bay State voters) now know her coffers are growing – and perhaps overflowing – with money emanating from the wallets of bankers, financiers and fat-cat investors.
Watch the following video and draw your own conclusions. But, if you ask me, her comments are dripping with hypocrisy.
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