Warren goes off on Trump over CFPB defense

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) savaged President Trump on Saturday for his claim that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has crippled financial institutions, claiming that the president would destroy the watchdog agency. 

In a series of tweets Saturday night, Warren defended CFPB’s work, saying that the agency had forced financial institutions to return ill-gotten money to those they wronged and accusing Trump of taking up for powerful banks.

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“Less than a decade after taxpayers bailed out the big banks, the banking industry made record profits last year,” Warren, a key architect of the CFPB, tweeted. “That’s who you’re worried about, realDonaldTrump?”

Less than a decade after taxpayers bailed out the big banks, the banking industry made record profits last year. That’s who you’re worried about, @realDonaldTrump? https://t.co/O318bHhZbS

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) November 25, 2017

“The CFPB has returned $12 billion to working families who were cheated. That’s government that works for the people, realDonaldTrump.”

The @CFPB has returned $12 billion to working families who were cheated. That’s government that works for the people, @realDonaldTrump.

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) November 25, 2017

“The only thing that will turn the CFPB into a disaster is for @realDonaldTrump to ignore Dodd-Frank & name an acting director determined to destroy the agency.”

The only thing that will turn the @CFPB into a disaster is for @realDonaldTrump to ignore Dodd-Frank & name an acting director determined to destroy the agency.

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) November 25, 2017

Hours earlier, Trump blasted the CFPB, saying that under the Obama administration it had left financial institutions “devastated and unable to properly serve the public.”

The watchdog agency was established by the 2010 Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which sought to overhaul U.S. financial regulations after the 2008 financial crisis. 

Drama erupted at the agency on Friday after now-former CFPB Director Richard Cordray named chief of staff Leandra English to the deputy director position before stepping down. Dodd-Frank states that in the absence of a permanent director, the deputy director will helm the agency.

Hours later, Trump tapped White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney as the agency’s acting director, setting up a showdown at the CFPB. Mulvaney, a conservative former congressman, has been a vocal critic of the CFPB, once calling the agency “a sick, sad joke.”