Hillary Clinton pens admiring blurb on Elizabeth Warren
What does Hillary Clinton have to say about the other female politician who some say deserves the Democratic presidential nomination?
Only very nice things, based on what she wrote in a national magazine.
Clinton wrote the blurb on Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warner for TIME Magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people.
"Elizabeth Warren never lets us forget that the work of taming Wall Street's irresponsible risk taking and reforming our financial system is far from finished. And she never hesitates to hold powerful people's feet to the fire: bankers, lobbyists, senior government officials and, yes, even presidential aspirants," Clinton wrote. Noting Warren's "journey from a janitor's daughter to a Harvard professor," Clinton praises her "unflagging determination to level the playing field for hardworking American families."
"She fights so hard for others to share in the American Dream because she lived it herself," Clinton said.
Clinton's official announcement earlier this week that she is running for president appears to have only strengthened the resolve of groups who are urging Warren to run, including the groups Ready for Warren and MoveOn.org.
Ready for Warren campaign manager Erica Sagrans said that her group was looking forward to Clinton laying out her platform, but that there may not be a sufficient debate about income equality, expanding Social Security and Wall Street accountability if Warren herself is not in the race.
"That's why in the coming days, Ready for Warren will be stepping up our efforts to convince Warren to run for president," Sagrans said. "With the 2016 race officially underway, we anticipate more Americans expressing their desire for a vigorous Democratic primary with Elizabeth Warren in it -- a primary that would strengthen the eventual nominee, ensure Democrats are better positioned to win the general election, and give working families a champion in Washington."
Warren, for her part, has ducked questions about Clinton's candidacy. She has said repeatedly that she is not running for president in 2016.
The two women have appeared together before during a campaign rally for Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley, a Democrat.
Warren kept her remarks about Clinton short at the October 2014 event. "I am happy to welcome Secretary Clinton back to the Commonwealth," she said, using the majority of her time on stage to praise Coakley and highlight her fight against big banks.
Clinton, meanwhile, was effusive in her praise for the senator.
"I am so pleased to be here with your senior senator, passionate champion for working class people and middle class families, Elizabeth Warren," Clinton said at the time. "I love watching Elizabeth, you know, give it to those who deserve to get it. Standing up not only for you, but people with the same needs and the same wants across the country. Great pleasure to be here in a state with such a great tradition of leadership."
Clinton also appeared on the annual TIME list. Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs' widow and the founder and chair of Emerson Collective, wrote that she is "revolutionary."
"She is one of America's greatest modern creations. Her decades in our public life must not blind us to the fact that she represents new realities and possibilities. Indeed, those same decades have conferred upon her what newness usually lacks: judgment, and even wisdom," she wrote. "Women who advocate for other women are often pigeonholed and pushed to the margins. That hasn't happened to Hillary, because when she's standing up for the rights of women and girls, she is speaking not only of gender but also of justice and liberty."
Powell Jobs also wrote that Clinton is "a realist with a conscience and an idealist who is comfortable with the exercise of power" and the kind of person who "practices the politics of reconciliation and reason."
Here are some other politicians on the honoree or author list:
- Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, on billionaire industrialist brothers and conservative activists Charles and David Koch: " Unlike many crony capitalists who troll the halls of Congress looking for favors, the Kochs have consistently lobbied against special-interest politics. For decades they have funded institutes that promote ideas, not politics, such as Cato and the Mercatus Center. They have always stood for freedom, equality and opportunity. Consistent with their love of liberty, they have become prominent advocates for criminal-justice reform."
- House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky: "Mitch McConnell's mind is a marvelous machine. He sees the whole field, instantly assessing opportunities and perils....He is often praised for his mastery of Senate rules, his crafty procedural maneuvers and his knowledge of the Senators in his caucus. But to focus solely on those things is to miss the larger point: that knowledge, and the whole calculating power of Mitch's mind, is in service of a higher goal."
- Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee on Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee: "Curious about tunnels smuggling supplies from Egypt to Gaza, U.S. Senator Bob Corker hailed a jeep, rode to the border, inspected the tunnels and that afternoon showed photographs to a startled Benjamin Netanyahu. In Chattanooga, Corker's penchant for aggressive fact finding caused this former construction executive and mayor to help 10,000 families find decent homes. Now it has thrust the junior Senator from Tennessee into bipartisan deals on debt, financial regulation, immigration and Iran...His tough-minded pragmatism and grasp of economics have restored prestige to the Foreign Relations Committee and are reminiscent of George H.W. Bush's skilled team. If he is not President himself, Corker is an obvious choice for Secretary of State or Treasury."
- TIME political columnist Joe Klein on President Obama: "The morning of Nov. 5, 2014, was undoubtedly the gloomiest of Barack Obama's presidency. His party had just been clobbered in the congressional elections--and it was widely perceived as a personal repudiation...He refused to act as if he had been defeated: he made some of the most serious history of his presidency, producing a framework for a nuclear nonproliferation deal with Iran and starting the path to normalizing relations with Cuba. A difficult world still loomed, and his presidency was far from perfect. But Barack Obama has proved that even after a lacerating defeat, the President of the United States is always, potentially, the most influential person in the world."