Graham: Warren's 'the problem'

For the third time this week Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Friday took to the Senate floor to rail against financial deregulation language tucked into a massive spending deal. But this time, there was somebody to rebut her.

The Massachusetts Democrat slammed large financial institutions and their reach into Washington, singling out Citigroup in particular. She ticked off former Citigroup employees who have found work in the Obama administration and with past presidents, railed against Citigroup’s influence in Washington and vowed to devote her service to breaking up the big banks to dilute the influence of companies like Citigroup.


But more than anything, she blamed Citigroup for inserting a provision in the spending deal that would roll back regulations of the Dodd-Frank bill for trading some derivatives and other securities.

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“Think about this kind of power. A financial institution has become so big and so powerful that it can hold the entire country hostage. That alone is a reason enough for us break them up. Enough is enough,” Warren said. “Enough is enough with Citigroup passing 11th hour deregulatory provisions that nobody takes ownership over but that everybody comes to regret. Enough is enough.”

Waiting after Warren’s blistering speech was Sen. Lindsey Graham, a deal-making Senate Republican prone to offering unsolicited wisdom to many of his colleagues. He cited comments Warren made during last year’s shutdown, and said that his liberal colleague sounded a lot like conservative hardliners who tried — and failed — to defund Obamacare as part of last year’s spending bill.

“You have every right to vote no and argue to bring the bill down,” the South Carolina senator chided her. “If there’s something you don’t like, welcome to democracy.”

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And then Graham lit into the 139 House Democrats who followed Warren and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s lead on Thursday and voted against the omnibus in the House, where it narrowly passed. Their votes, Graham said, were for a shutdown, and he warned Warren not to take the same kind of hard line he witnessed his Republican colleagues take last year.

“If you follow the lead of the senator of Massachusetts … people are not going to believe you are mature enough to run the place,” Graham said. “Don’t follow her lead. She’s the problem.”

Warren didn’t respond to Graham.