While the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, may be facing some mounting odds as the delegate math becomes harder to overcome, Sanders is still a viable and active candidate, and still has at least a theoretical chance of winning in November.
And while his odds may be long, that isn’t stopping Sanders from floating a name of a potential running mate that would send a serious shiver down the collective spine of Wall Street – Elizabeth Warren.
Throughout his campaign, Sanders has made it known that he is no fan of Wall Street and would seek to break up the big banks, among other significant reforms, if he becomes president.
And if that happens, Wall Street may have more than just Sanders to contend with, it may be facing a doomsday scenario of a Sanders/Warren administration.
Now, it’s important to caution that Sanders merely mentioned Sanders name when discussing the idea of nominating a woman to serve as his president and didn’t specifically state that Warren would be his running mate, but her name still came in the conversation, and that, in and of itself, is telling.
Sanders made the mention during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” which was recapped by the Wall Street Journal’s Byron Tau.
From the Wall Street Journal:
“The women of this country, the people of this country understand it would be a great idea to have a woman as vice president and something I would give very, very serious thought to,” Mr. Sanders said Tuesday.
Pressed to name a qualified candidate, he said there are “many women qualified for that job,” and pointed to Ms. Warren, a freshman Democratic senator, as one possible example.
“There are people in life today, Elizabeth Warren, I think, has been a real champion in standing up for working families, taking on Wall Street,” said Mr. Sanders. “There are other fantastic women who have been active in all kinds of fights who I think would make great vice-presidential candidates.”
Warren, throughout her tenure in the Senate, and even before that, positioned herself as a Wall Street adversary.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was, in many ways, the brainchild of Warren. In Sep. 2010, the Obama administration appointed Warren to serve as the architect of the bureau.
Warren, who was then a Harvard Law professor, was a top candidate to lead the CFPB, but the role of director eventually went to former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray.
Warren left the CFPB shortly after it officially opened for business on July 21, 2011.
But Warren’s antagonism towards Wall Street didn’t stop there. If anything, it escalated when she was elected to the Senate in 2012.
In 2014, Warren told Diane Rehm that the government must do more to oversee banking in this country. “Big financial institutions should not be allowed to break the law and just walk away,” Warren said in 2014.
“The key is for the regulators to do their jobs and call out these banks,” Warren continued. “The bank regulators need to remember they are not there to serve the banks, they’re there to serve the American people.”
Sanders positioned himself throughout his campaign as a scourge of Wall Street, a corner of the world that Warren has occupied for several years.
And if the unlikely (and perhaps unthinkable) happens in November, Wall Street could find itself backed into in a very uncomfortable corner for the next four (or eight) years.
