Elizabeth Warren is one of the biggest critics of the rich.
In the 2020 Democratic field, recognize that, say, with business people,
Wall Street, you're very polarizing.
Look, I get that there are a lot of folks who like having the power
and the riches they have.
They like being able to tweak their little pinky and the United States
government does just what they want.
Don't call me the polarizing figure.
They're the ones who want to say that their personal wealth, their power is
more important than building in America that works for everyone.
The senator hasn't done so badly herself.
She's ranked among the top earners in the Democratic presidential field for
the last few years.
Last year, she and her husband, Harvard Law Professor Bruce Mann, made
about $850,000 in the four years before that.
Their incomes ranged between about $716,000 and $1.5 million.
The haul puts them firmly in the top 1 percent of U.S.
households.
Warren is campaigning on dislodging an economic system she says caters to
the wealthy and powerful.
Washington works great for those at the top.
But she stresses that she doesn't want to stop other Americans from making
money. Warren's tax returns show it still pays to be an author.
She raked in more than $300,000 from writing last year, and that's small
potatoes compared to what she made in 2014.
Her income from consulting, lecturing, writing and investing was nearly
$1.2 million.
Warren has written multiple books over the years.
She's been writing both during her Senate tenure and as a Harvard law
professor before that.
And it's not just the book money that made Warren and Mann rich.
Warren took in about $173,000 from her congressional job last year.
Mann made another $400,000 at Harvard, where he focuses on topics like legal
history, non-profits and estates.
So why does their wealth matter?
Warren wants to fundamentally change the political and economic system to
help working and middle class Americans.
Her proposed 2 percent tax on wealth above $50 million is the main source
of money for her plans, like widespread student debt relief and universal
childcare. But Warren says she doesn't want to penalize achievement.
All we're asking is when you make it that big, put something back in.
And we're asking for a little fairness in the system.
Even so, critics on the Republican side have noticed how much money she has.
I think it points out a real hypocrisy for a bunch of candidates who have
eschewed capitalism and who have really used their government office to it
to grow their own wealth.
If Elizabeth Warren was simply a law school professor peddling textbooks,
she would not be making the $350,000 off her book.
But it may not be that simple.
You could argue that gives them extra credibility, right?
That they could be ultimately taxing themselves.
And Warren herself says she doesn't want to hold Americans back from
financial success.
You don't think capitalists are bad people?
I am a capitalist.
Come on.
I believe in markets.
What I don't believe in is theft.
What I don't believe in is cheating.
That's where the differences – I love what markets can do – but only fair
markets. Markets with rules, markets without rules is about the rich take
it all.
It's about the powerful get all of it.
It's a message top tier Democrats are stressing constantly during the
primary.
Donald Trump has put us in a horrible situation.
We do have enormous income inequality.
Working families need support and need to be lifted up.
And frankly, this economy is not working for working people.
Well President Trump, you're not standing up for working families when
you're trying to throw 32 million people off their health care that they
have and that 83 percent of your tax benefits go to the top 1 percent.
Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris are all millionaires and
they're all insisting that their financial success is not going to affect
their focus on lifting up working families.
It's a message Warren will have to drill into as she tries to lock down the
nomination. She and her rivals are arguing a strong economy and stock
market records under Trump are not helping average Americans.
And that could be key to defeating the president if the economy remains
healthy. When you've got government, when you've got an economy that does
great for those with money and isn't doing great for everyone else, that is
corruption, pure and simple.
We need to call it out.
We need to attack it head on.
And we need to make structural change in our government, in our economy and
in our country.