Liberals want Warren to prod Clinton

With candidate’s transition team considering applicants to fill as many as 15 Cabinet positions, the left has begun to exert pressure

Senator Elizabeth Warren delivered a blistering rebuke of Donald Trump on Monday, warning him that “nasty women vote”, and implored a crowd to cast ballots for Hillary Clinton.

“I don’t know about you,” Clinton said as she flashed a thankful smile and seized the microphone from Warren at a rally in Manchester. “But I could listen to Elizabeth Warren go on all day.”

She might have to. With polls and early voting data signalling that Clinton likely will prevail against Trump in two weeks, liberal Democrats are already looking past Election Day — and relying on Warren to become the thorn-in-chief in Clinton’s side, scrutinising her appointments and agenda.

“Personnel is policy,” said Robert Reich, a secretary of labour during President Bill Clinton’s administration who supported Sanders during the nominating fight. Reich said he anticipated intense resistance to any appointees with ties to Wall Street.

“As far I can tell, those discussions have already begun,” he said.

Concerns

Asked on Saturday whether she had thought about her Cabinet appointments, Clinton told reporters on-board her campaign plane: “No, I really haven’t. I’m a little superstitious about that.”

But that has not stopped liberals from voicing concerns. “We need a secretary of the Treasury who is prepared to take on the greed and recklessness of Wall Street, not someone who comes from Wall Street,” Sanders wrote in an email Monday. “We need an attorney general who will enforce antitrust legislation,” he added, in light of AT&T’s proposed $85 billion (Dh312 billion) acquisition of Time Warner.

Democrats frequently point to Warren as a model for how to gain the public’s attention in effectively blocking appointments. Last year she foiled President Barack Obama’s appointment of Antonio Weiss, a senior investment banker at Lazard, to a top Treasury Department post, a coup that thrilled the left when Weiss withdrew his name from consideration. If she is elected, Clinton will face similar pressures filling Cabinet positions. From the left, the most scrutinised of those choices would be the Treasury secretary.