Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s meeting with Vice President Joe Biden last summer helped fuel speculation that Biden would enter the 2016 race — but the Massachusetts senator told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the two Democrats have disagreed very sharply in the past.
“Oh, yes we have,” Warren said in an interview at the Washington Ideas Forum that aired Sunday on “State of the Union.” “You bet.”
The two have battled over a 2005 bill that made it more difficult for individuals to file for bankruptcy. Biden backed the legislation, while Warren, then a Harvard professor who was advising the National Bankruptcy Review Commission, testified against the bill, which ultimately passed.
“Sen. Biden was on one side of that fight and I was on the other,” Warren said. “And you better believe I didn’t hold back.”
Warren said she and Biden are still on opposite sides when it comes to financial reform.
Biden and Warren met at the vice president’s residence in August, where they discussed “a whole range of policy issues,” Warren told Tapper.
“How we’re going to build America’s middle class, about how we’re going to create opportunities for working families, how we’re going to create opportunities for poor families,” Warren said. “Both of us see this as a principal role of government. It’s about the investments we need to make and the investments we need to make together. And look, I’ll be straight on, we also talked about the need for a cop on the beat on Wall Street. We talked about support for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And it was a good conversation.”
Warren added: “Joe Biden is somebody who cares about America. And who cares about America’s families. I think that’s been true for a long time. So that’s what the conversation was about.”
People close to Biden, who is still reeling from the death of his son this spring, say he has not yet made up his mind whether to enter the contest. On Thursday, CNN reported that Biden has extended his window for deciding whether to jump into the campaign.
Tapper noted to Warren that she and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is pursuing the Democratic presidential nomination, align on many issues. But Warren, who is beloved by progressives, has yet to endorse a candidate in the 2016 race.
“Look, at this moment, I don’t know because I’m just not there. What I do know is that people are out talking about these key ideas and I think that’s exactly the right thing to do. I think we should be talking about Glass-Stegall,” Warren said, a reference to a Depression-era banking law repealed in the late 1990s that many progressives would like to see brought back. “I think we should be talking about the role that the major financial institutions play not just in this economy, but play in the major political sphere here in Washington.”
