Republican Congressman Wants to ‘Neuter’ Elizabeth Warren

Photo via AP

Update: Thursday, 4:27 p.m.

In a fundraising email titled “I won’t be neutered,” Warren fired back at Luetkemeyer, calling him a “Wall Street yes-man.”

“My first thought was: Really? I’ve always seen myself more as a Princess Leia-type (a senator and Resistance general who, unlike the guys, is never even remotely tempted by the dark side),” Warren said. “Clearly the Force is not strong with Congressman Luetkemeyer (maybe he’s a Trekkie).”

Warren accused the Missouri Republican of using her name to improve his own standing with the financial services industry.

“They can call me Darth Vader or Voldemort or the Wicked Witch of Massachusetts for all I care—but I won’t be neutered. I won’t be muzzled. And I won’t stop fighting to level the playing field for working families,” she said.

Previously:

Senator Elizabeth Warren has long been a thorn in the side of the banking and financial services industry, from her time as the preeminent scholar on consumer protection law, to her stint as overseer of the TARP funds, to her senate career, which recently saw her publish a scathing report calling for criminal charges brought against corporate lawbreakers.

So forgive us if we aren’t too surprised when one her colleagues with significant ties to the banking industry has a less-than-flattering opinion of her.

Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, while speaking to a conference of the American Bankers Association in Washington this week, called Warren the “Darth Vader of the financial services world,” and urged the bankers to “find a way to neuter” the senator.

The Missouri Republican, a member of the Senior House Financial Services Committee, has pocketed more than $1 million in campaign donations from the banking industry, as well as $63,000 from the type of payday lenders Warren nearly put out of business with a 2014 bill that sought to replace them with the U.S. Post Office. He’s put his name on all sorts of legislation aimed at undermining Warren’s efforts, including a 2012 bill that would’ve weakened her Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and a 2015 bill ending the Department of Justice’s pesky meddling with predatory lending practices.

Also, gross.