Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren met in December

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hosted Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, for a meeting at her Washington home in December, theNew York Times reported Tuesday.

The two powerful women met in private without aides in what was described to the Times as a "cordial and productive" meeting. Amid reports Clinton has begun to bring on staff for a potential presidential campaign, the former Secretary of State did not ask Warren to consider endorsing her if she runs for president.

Warren has repeatedly denied interest in running for president in 2016, yet she remains a powerful force in the Democratic Party. She has come to represent a more populist branch of the party, recently fighting to remove reforms that would have weakened Wall Street regulations in a spending bill that passed Congress last December. People in her inner circle have suggested to the Times that she would push Clinton to make income inequality and keeping a check on large financial firms important parts of her platform.

Clinton, for her part, was once more in tune with the liberal wing of the party that has fallen in love with Warren, but has been accused of getting too close to Wall Street firms in recent years, in part because she has spent the two years since she left the State Department speaking to such groups for handsome fees.

The Times suggested the meeting was not only a good way for two relatively unfamiliar people to get to know each other better, but also for Clinton to try to ensure that Warren offers any opinions about Clinton's campaign or policies privately rather than publicly.