Report: Elizabeth Warren Gunning for High-Ranking Position in Potential Biden Administration
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusets reportedly wants to be Joe Biden’s Treasury secretary if he wins the 2020 election, according to three Democratic officials.
The officials had spoken to the Massachusetts Democrat’s inner circle and informed Politico about their conversation.
“She wants it,” two of them said.
Other contenders for the Treasury secretary position in a possible Biden administration are Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard, former Treasury Department official Sarah Bloom Raskin and former Federal Reserve vice chairman Roger Ferguson.
The Treasury Department will be tasked with bringing the U.S. economy out of a recession following the coronavirus pandemic.
Putting Warren in the position would get support from the Democratic party’s progressives but would likely draw opposition from moderate Democrats.
“It’s 5 days out, we’re focused on the election and encourage everyone else to be as well,” Warren spokesperson Kristen Orthman said.
Warren will be campaigning for Biden this weekend in New Hampshire, News Center Maine reported.
The former Democratic presidential candidate has formed a close bond with Biden since she ended her presidential bid this past spring, serving as an economic adviser, according to Politico.
The Treasury secretary slot is appealing to Warren because she could enact the “big structural changes” she talked about during her candidacy instead of pressuring Cabinet officials from her seat in the Senate, according to her allies.
She also wants to rectify the mistakes she thinks were made in the Obama administration’s response to the Great Recession.
“She’d be the person to meet the moment,” Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants Labor Union, said.
“She understands all the failed strategies in the past in terms of how to rebuild the economy and how to shore up average Americans.”
Another Democratic source said that if she does not get the slot, she would most likely want to stay in the Senate and push for a seat on the Finance Committee.
If Warren becomes Treasury secretary, there would most likely be quick pushback from Wall Street over fears that she would put harsher regulations on the financial sector, a reputation she embraced during the Democratic primary.
Opponents have also said that her nomination “could spook the markets, particularly the bond market, at a perilous moment,” Politico reported.
“I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or as a .400 baseball hitter,” James Carville said during Bill Clinton’s presidency, according to Politico.
“But now I would like to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.”
People have also questioned Warren’s preparedness for the position because she has little direct experience with financial markets.
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