If Sen. Elizabeth Warren could choose anyone living or dead to be her running mate, it would be former Republican president Theodore Roosevelt, she claims.
She said the two-term Republican would be her ideal vice presidential pick. The Massachusetts Democrat told MSNBC that the two-term Republican president was a brave figure who would fit well with her message of breaking up big monopolies.
“He took on the trusts. And he didn’t care how many people were going to be mad about it. And he did it — this is what’s amazing — for the right reasons. It wasn’t just that they were big. It wasn’t just that they were dominating an economy. It wasn’t just that they were putting farmers out of business and competitors out of business and small companies out of business,” Warren said.
“It was that they had too much political power,” she said. “And it was the very fact of that political power that caused Teddy Roosevelt to say I’m going to be a trust buster. Man, I’d like to have that guy at my side.”
Roosevelt, who assumed the presidency in 1901 following the assassination of President William McKinley, served until 1909. The former New York governor, a passionate conservationist and war hero, left the Republican party to found the Progressive party. The “Bull Moose Party,” as it was known, built on the progressive agenda of Roosevelt’s domestic policies known as the Square Deal, which included his corporate reform efforts.
Breaking up big corporations is a key plank in Warren’s campaign and has been a central focus of her time in the U.S. Senate. Last Congress, Warren introduced the Accountable Capitalism Act, which aims to restructure the corporate boards of U.S.-based companies and give more power to lower-level employees.
