Warren criticizes Obama pick for Treasury in session with donors

During a meeting with nearly 50 of her top Boston-area donors Sunday night, Sen. Elizabeth Warren strongly criticized President Barack Obama’s Treasury Department pick Antonio Weiss and said Hispanic and African-American families were “targeted” during the mortgage crisis, according to people who attended the event.

The get-together, which was not a fundraiser but instead a chance for the Massachusetts Democrat to tend to her donor supporters, came as some Democrats continue to plead with Warren to launch a 2016 presidential campaign.


Warren did not get asked about whether she plans to run, or face new suggestions that she should, according to people on hand for the event, which was held at the home of the senator’s supporter Cheryl Cronin. But she did discuss Weiss, the head of global banking at Lazard and Obama’s pick for Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance, whom she opposes.

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Warren described the revolving door, in which people go from banks to government and back again, as “real,” according to an attendee. “She said … at some point we have to recognize that there are other types of experience besides working on Wall Street that qualify people to do” these jobs, the attendee added.

On the issue of race relations, Warren gave what attendees described as a passionate talk about a growing problem in the United States.

She ascribed some of the problem to a worsening climate of economic opportunity for African-Americans than existed even a decade ago, according to attendees. And she said that the mortgage crisis affected black and Hispanic families more heavily, describing those groups as being “targeted.”

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A Warren spokeswoman did not respond to an email.

Those on hand at the event included supporters such as Noami Aberly, Shanti Fry and Reinier Beeuwkes III and his wife, Nancy.

Beeuwkes, a Concord, Massachusetts, pharmaceutical executive, told POLITICO, “She spoke with passion about things like income inequality, but I’m not going to give you an interview.”

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Beeuwkes and his wife combined to donate $1.7 million to Democratic candidates and groups in 2014, including $10,000 to Ready for Hillary, which supports the likely White House candidacy of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He declined to say whether there was any talk about 2016 at Sunday’s gathering, either from the donors or from Warren.

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