Warren: 'Enough Goldman Sachs Bankers in the White House Now' to 'Open a Branch'

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said the swamp that Trump has repeatedly promised to “drain” in Washington is getting even swampier under his administration.

“It is hard right now in Washington. It is really hard. It is scary hard, what’s going on in Washington. You know, Donald Trump promised to drain the swamp, and it is getting worse than ever down there. We have a government that is working great for the rich and for the powerful,” Warren said during a town hall meeting last week with constituents in Marshfield, Mass., along with Rep. Bill Keating (D-Mass.).

“We need a government that works for the rest of us, and the only way that is going to happen is not just from the leadership, not just from people who get elected to the Senate and the House, but from all the people across this commonwealth and across this country who say, ‘I’m going to make this country work for me.’ We need you in this fight,” she added.

Warren, who serves on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, named some of the demonstrations that have taken place in Washington this year.

“How many people went to the Women’s March? How many people went to the rally for immigrants? Science March? Whoa, that was a good one. Good. Good,” Warren said. “We need you in these fights and I know it is hard, and I know, some people say ‘I am getting tired.’ And the answer is, you did not make the commitment because it is easy. You made a commitment because it is right.”

Warren urged Democratic activists to continue fighting to advance their agenda.

“So, being here tonight, being part of this town hall, is a way of saying we come together because we really do believe in government by the people and for the people and of the people. That is why we are here. It is a great privilege to represent Massachusetts; a great privilege to represent you in the United States Senate, but more than anything else it is a great privilege to fight alongside you to build a future for our country where everybody gets a fighting chance,” she said.

Warren criticized Trump for selecting former Goldman Sachs executives to work in his administration, such as National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.

“Donald Trump got elected promising that he was going to work for working people, and then he turns right around and before he’s even sworn in, he puts in the team from Goldman Sachs to run the economy – that is unbelievable. They have enough Goldman Sachs bankers in the White House now that they could open up a branch office in the White House of Goldman Sachs,” she said.

“And these are the guys that are writing the rules. These are the guys that said, ‘hey, let’s roll back those regulations – don’t need those regulations.’ Gee, if we had fewer regulations over folks like Goldman Sachs, what could possibly go wrong in this economy, right? No one remembers what happened in 2008.”

Keating, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the audience he is against the proposed cuts to the State Department.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently outlined a plan to reduce the number of special envoys, including in the areas of Muslim community outreach and climate change, by 55 percent.

“It’s important that we deal with soft power and diplomacy – they have cut so much from the State Department that would prevent conflicts and wars that we are in danger right now,” Keating said. “We should be speaking in one voice. We shouldn’t have the secretary of State saying one thing and the president of the United States saying another – that’s dangerous and upsets our security.”