Elizabeth Warren HATES Citigroup. Hillary Clinton is a big fan. Employees of the Wall Street bank are the single largest source of campaign donations to Hillary Clinton over the course of her political career.
Warren blasted Citibank (the commercial banking arm of Citigroup Inc.) and other Wall Street firms (and Hillary Clinton, by extension) in her speech to the left-wing Netroots Nations conference in Phoenix. The Los Angeles Times reports:
Sen. Elizabeth Warren did not mention Hillary Clinton by name, but the Massachusetts Democrat had some strong advice for her: Don't get to close to Citibank.
"I think anyone running for that job, anyone who wants the power to make every key economic appointment and nomination across the federal government," Warren said "should say loud and clear that they agree: We don't run this country for Wall Street and mega corporations. We run it for people." ...
Warren also recited a litany of former Citibank officials who hold key spots in the Obama Administration and a reminder of the group's sway in inserting a provision to loosen Dodd-Frank financial regulations inserted into last year's spending bill.
"Wall Street insiders have enough influence in Washington already without locking up one powerful job after another in the Executive Branch of our government," she said. "Sure, private sector experience can be valuable—no one ever said otherwise—but there is a point at which the revolving door compromises public interest. And we are way beyond that point."
Hillary Clinton doesn't seem to be paying attention, given the huge sums of money she's already raised from Wall Street. In the second quarter of 2015, Citigroup employees contributed $24,875 to Clinton's campaign. Principled liberal Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, is an enemy of Wall Street, just like Warren.
Bill Clinton's former Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin, worked as a senior counselor for Citigroup after leaving the White House, and resigned in January 2009 in the midst of the financial crisis, months after the bank received a $476 billion bailout from the U.S. government.