Keller @ Large: Is Warren's Uncertain Future Holding Her Back?
BOSTON (CBS) -- Senator Elizabeth Warren came to Boston's Health Care for the Homeless Program on Friday to tout a bill she's filing with fellow Democrat Elijah Cummings that would send billions to local communities to fight the opioid addiction epidemic.
But we wondered if she had found any Republican co-sponsors for the bill?
"I simply started right now with Congressman Cummings," she said.
But Warren herself has said she will need bipartisan support for the legislation. So we asked if the polarized political climate and the endless speculation about her own future complicate that task.
"We start with the fact that the opioid epidemic is not paying attention to party affiliation," replied Warren.
True enough, but in Washington, it's always top of mind.
And if Warren's chronic Trump-bashing doesn't complicate her bi-partisan outreach, the possibility she may run for president certainly will, despite recent efforts to quell the speculation.
At a town hall event Thursday sponsored by the Dorchester Reporter newspaper, the moderator asked Warren: "If you're re-elected. are you gonna fill out your whole term?"
"That's my plan," said Warren, a demurral as persuasive as then-Senator Barack Obama's demurral during a 2006 interview with NBC. "So you will not run for president or vice-president in 2008?" asked Tim Russert. "I will not," said Obama, who announced his candidacy one year later.
Keeping the door open for a 2020 run helps Warren attract attention and donations. But it also makes bipartisan dealmaking harder.
"What I'm hopeful about is instead of putting politics first we'll be willing to put the good of the American people first" when it comes to the opioid funding bill, says Warren.
Good luck with that.
