WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and bashed likely Republican presidential candidates’ emphasis on inequality during a speech event Tuesday night.
The speech at an event celebrating the 30th anniversary of Emily’s List tied the importance of equal pay for women to inequality and improving wages for the middle class.
Notably, Clinton gave a shout-out to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who liberals hope will wage a primary challenge to Clinton (if she decides to run in 2016). Warren has repeatedly and relentlessly said she is not running for president in 2016 but supporters see her as appealing potential candidate who could possibly push Clinton to the left on economic policy.
“It’s because of women like you that Elizabeth Warren can work to hold Wall Street accountable,” Clinton told the crowd.
She also praised President Barack Obama on the economy and helping the country fight its way back from “from crisis and recession” but also said there was more work to be done on the economy.
Clinton’s speech didn’t mention the email controversy that dominated a big chunk of the news cycle on Tuesday, rooted in a New York Times report that the former secretary of state may have violated violated federal regulations by exclusively using a personal account when she ran the State Department.
The former secretary of state’s speech emphasized that wage fairness issues were issues important to the entire American economy.
“These are not just problems for women, they are problems for families and our entire economy,” Clinton said. “I mean let’s be honest, our families look different than they did a decade ago and so do our jobs. Many families today depend on two incomes to make ends meet.”
Clinton then delivered a few jabs at Republicans like former Gov. Jeb Bush (R) who have emphasized income inequality.
“In fact we do not want to discourage their newfound interest but we’re not buying that old trickle-down economics that didn’t work before and won’t work again,” Clinton said.
Hillary Clinton is saying the right things, and that’s good. Let’s keep the pressure up now and through the primary, general, and her two terms as president to make sure she sticks to it.
During the Clinton administration in the late 90’s, Hillary Clinton asked Elizabeth Warren to brief her on bankruptcy policy. Warren praises Clinton for being fast learner, and understood the issues to the core - and ready to fight for what’s right: stopping the bankruptcy bill. Hillary single handledly stopped the bill through her influence in the administration having Bill veto it in 2000. Good on her.
Skip forward to when Hillary Clinton is now Senator from New York. She then votes in favor of the bankruptcy bill.
This is a story Elizabeth Warren told Bill Moyers back in 2004.
I know Elizabeth is not running, and that’s ok, she has been and will continue to provide much of the left-ward pressure required (along with Obama, Bernie, et al.) in order to keep the debate framed on these issues. We must keep Clinton to the left during the primary and general, and stick with it during her terms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12mJ-U76nfgI think the email thing was completely overblown by the NYT. They need to retract the story and set the record straight. The law only required a government email for SoS in 2014 and Clinton was not SoS at that time. The official government email for SoS didn’t exist until John Kerry! This whole thing is completely and utterly bogus.
I’d love to see President Hillary Clinton appoint Elizabeth Warren to the Supreme Court. Anyone with me on that?
Elizabeth Warren turns 66 years old this year. A president who wants to put her stamp on the court should be thinking of nominees about twenty years younger than that.
Seconded, @Livi_O. And I want Warren in the Senate as long as she can stand it, giving voice and force to “her” issues as nobody else can.
And right on, @Van_Hammersly. Clinton’s smart enough to know which way the political winds are blowing (shoot, even the Republicans get it); and it’s worth remembering that progressivism is in her DNA (Bill’s staffers would complain that she was always trying to pull him to the left). But she’s also a pragmatic pol, so we’ll have to stay involved, in a positive, productive way, to make sure the wisdom of the progressive course is always clear. For every Democrat, actually.