Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has become a symbol of everything the Republican
party stands against.
Everyone gets a right to basic healthcare.
We need strong oversight of these banks.
A legal scholar, and a consumer advocate turned politician, Warren has branded herself
as a champion of the working class and made a career out of standing up to big business.
While rumors of a 2020 presidency bid remain just that...
I’m not running for President.
Her Senate seat is up for reelection in 2018, and Republicans are already pumping millions
into SuperPacs to defeat her.
This is the story of how a law professor and politician came to be seen as the biggest
threat to Republican values, and the greatest hope for progressive America.
Elizabeth Warren was born Elizabeth Anne Herrin, the youngest of three siblings on June 22,
1949, in Oklahoma City to middle class parents.
After waiting tables to help her family pay the bills, Warren became a star on the
high school debate team.
She landed a scholarship to George Washington University at the age of 16,
but two years later dropped out to marry her high school sweetheart, Jim Warren.
By 1980 Warren was a mother of two, divorced and remarried, had earned a bachelor’s degree
from the University of Houston, a Juris Degree from Rutgers and was practicing law in New Jersey.
Warren then went on to become an influential law professor, teaching lecturing and publishing
highly cited work on bankruptcy and commercial law at seven universities around the country,
eventually settling at Harvard Law School.
But Warren wasn't always a liberal lion.
Elizabeth Warren used to be a Republican actually.
That’s Steven Dennis.
I’m a Senate reporter for Bloomberg.
Around the time Elizabeth Warren switched parties she became a fierce opponent of a
Republican drive to make it much harder to file for bankruptcy.
She fought that for a decade, it ended up passing anyway.
While her efforts ultimately failed, her warning calls were heard in 2008.
We’re in the midst of a serious financial crisis. Our entire economy is in danger.
Without immediate action by congress, America could slip into a financial panic
and a distressing scenario would unfold.
Professor Warren was tapped to help with oversight in the government bailout.
She would excoriate bankers and their bonuses and their practices.
Why should the US taxpayer alone carry Citi?
She proposed a series of tough regulations which became the basis for much of the
Dodd Frank financial law that we have today.
That sort of catapulted her to national stardom, particularly among the progressive left.
Encouraged by her newfound noteriaty, Warren declared her bid for the US Senate on on September 14, 2011.
During the race her opponent Scott Brown tried to derail Warren by accusing her of falsely
claiming Native American heritage, a controversy that earned her the nickname “Pocahontas”.
Nevertheless she was victorious and won the senate seat by a comfortable margin.
She used her new tenure to challenge everyone from banking regulators and treasury officials,
to members of Wall Street and Congress.
I'm really concerned that 'too big to fail' has become 'too big for trial'.
We need tough new laws to hold corporate executives personally accountable.
No one should be above the law.
She called for Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf to resign for fraud, introduced the Bank on
Student Loans Fairness Act, and re-introduced the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act.
In 2016, after staying silent during the primary battle between Sanders and Clinton, Warren
finally endorsed Hillary Clinton, and had some harsh words for candidate Trump.
Donald Trump is a loud nasty thin skinned fraud who has never risked anything for anyone
and that is just one of the many reasons he will never be President of the United States.
But she was wrong.
The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.
Warren wasted no time resisting Trump’s agenda.
Have you ever managed or overseen a trillion dollar loan program?
I have not.
How about a billion dollar loan program?
I have not.
In the Donald Trump era Elizabeth Warren has been playing defense, and trying to prevent
Donald Trump and his cabinet appointees from rolling back protections that she helped enact.
Warren actually found herself rebuked by Mitch McConnell for reading a letter by Coretta
Scott King about Jeff Session’s record on racism during his confirmation.
She was warned.
She was given an explanation.
Nevertheless, she persisted…
That moment became something that’s on T-shirts, bumper stickers, slogans, and that really
galvanized a lot of support for her.
It’s been really hard for Republicans to get much of anything done this year, and that’s
at least in part to this resistance movement that Elizabeth Warren has helped champion.
We are here to fight back!
Millions of dollars are being funneled to defeat Warren in the midterm elections in 2018.
But it's the rumors of 2020 presidential bid that has further prompted powerful donors
to fund her opposition often using the same playbook of constant and ruthless ad campaigns
that many believe helped Trump win in 2016.
It’s anyone’s guess if she will endure what Hillary could not.
You know the question for Elizabeth Warren is whether she can go from being a liberal
firebrand, to somebody who can regularly get 60 votes for initiatives in the Senate and
218 in the House and drive an agenda, and whether she can bring together
coalitions for political victories.
That’s the challenge and we’ll see what happens.