Elizabeth Warren called on President-elect Trump to shake up his transition team Thursday, charging that the Republican has built the team with a “slew” of bankers and lobbyists, rather than draining the swamp as he promised.
The Democratic Massachusetts senator told Trump in a letter that he has a responsibility to “remove the lobbyists and financial bigwigs from your transition team and reinstate a group of advisors who will fight for the interests of all Americans.” She offered to provide him a list of her own favored candidates for the transition team and for staffing his administration.
Warren, known for progressive criticisms of both parties, earlier in the day upbraided Trump on a different scoring. Speaking at a conference in Washington, Warren argued his selection of former Breitbart head Steve Bannon as a top White House adviser suggested his White House would “embrace bigotry.”
She also speculated that Trump’s calls for lighter regulation of banks would prompt “a battle that’s going to be fought hard” in Congress, although she also mentioned that she would be interested to see which approach Trump would take, noting that he has also criticized Wall Street.
In her letter sent Tuesday, Warren took exception to a few Trump advisers in particular, including David Malpass, a former Bear Stearns economist before the investment bank’s collapse, and former Securities and Exchange Commissioner Paul Atkins. Those two are reported to be leading transition team efforts on finance-related policy.
Even before Trump’s election, progressive groups were bracing for battles over nominations for financial posts, with special preparations for possible picks by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
