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- Sen. Elizabeth Warren became the first 2020 Democrat to directly attack former Vice President Joe Biden following his Thursday announcement that he’s joining the presidential primary.
- "Joe Biden was on the side of the credit card companies," Warren said on Thursday of a fight she had with Biden in the mid-2000s over bankruptcy legislation.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren became the first 2020 Democrat to directly attack former Vice President Joe Biden following his Thursday announcement that he’s joining the presidential primary.
Asked by a reporter on Thursday about a 2005 fight the two had over bankruptcy legislation, Warren was clear that she believed Biden took the side opposing American families.
"I got in that fight because [families] just didn’t have anyone and Joe Biden was on the side of the credit card companies," Warren said after a rally in Iowa. "It’s all a matter of public record."
Warren, then a Harvard law professor, publicly sparred with then-Sen. Biden over legislation he supported that made it harder for Americans to file for bankruptcy. Warren, a bankruptcy law expert, contended that the bill would eliminate crucial protections for struggling families, while boosting banks and the credit industry.
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Warren accused Biden of inserting abortion protections into the bill as a way to win Democratic support and called the effort "cynical and opportunistic" in a 2002 New York Times op-ed entitled "A Quiet Attack on Women."
"Do politicians like Mr. Biden who support the bankruptcy bill believe they can give credit-card companies the right to elbow out women and children so long as they rally behind an issue like abortion?" Warren wrote of the legislation. "The message is unmistakable: On an economic issue that attracts millions of dollars of industry support, women have no real political importance."
Read more: Elizabeth Warren says Joe Biden ‘needs to answer’ for inappropriate touching allegations
A handful of 2020 candidates, including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, and Rep. Beto O’Rourke, sent out fundraising emails to their supporters on Thursday with Biden’s name in the subject line.
"As of this morning, my friend Joe Biden is now running for president. And you know what I say to that? The more, the merrier!" Harris wrote in a message asking her supporters to chip in to her campaign.
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See Also:
- The group that powered Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign is kicking off a war against Joe Biden’s 2020 primary bid
- Trump welcomes ‘Sleepy Joe’ Biden to the 2020 race by insulting his intelligence and bashing Democrats’ ‘very sick & demented ideas’
- Bernie Sanders has been the Democratic frontrunner since jumping in the 2020 race. That’s about to change.
SEE ALSO: Here’s where 2020 Democratic presidential candidates stand on impeaching Trump
Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Eliza Relman)