Hillary Clinton responds to criticism over the speaking fees she has received from corporate America, and Wall Street in particular, by challenging critics to cite one vote in which, as a Senator, she bowed to these interests. When she used this response last night, Bernie Sanders failed to cite any such vote.
But Elizabeth Warren has cited one. America Rising calls attention to the following exchange between Warren and Bill Moyers in 2004, which pertains to a bankruptcy bill favored by Wall Street that she opposed as First Lady but voted for as Senator:
WARREN: One of the first bills that came up after she was Senator Clinton, was the bankruptcy bill. This is a bill that’s like a vampire, it will not die right, there’s a lot of money behind it.
MOYERS: Bill her husband had vetoed [it].
WARREN: Her husband had vetoed it very much at her urging.
MOYERS: And?
WARREN: She voted in favor of it.
MOYERS: Why?
WARREN: As Senator Clinton, the pressures are very different. It’s a well-financed industry. You know a lot of people don’t realize that the industry that gave the most money to Washington over the past few years was not the oil industry, was not pharmaceuticals, it was consumer credit products. Those are the people, the credit card companies have been giving money and they have influence.
MOYERS: And Mrs. Clinton was one of them as senator.
WARREN: She has taken money from the groups and more to the point, she worries about them as a constituency.
It’s almost always difficult to tie a particular vote to campaign contributions or constituent pressure. After, we can’t inside a politician’s head.
But in this case, the connection seems pretty direct. Clinton opposed a bill that favored the consumer credit products industry just before she became a Senator, but voted for such legislation s a short time later, after accepting money from these interests.
If Elizabeth Warren, the leading opponent of the legislation, sees a connection, who am I to disagree?
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