Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) accused former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) of “selling access” to his former colleagues, slamming him for taking a job with a Wall Street investment bank.
“How wrong can this be that basically what’s happening here is that people work in Washington and man, they hit that revolving door with a speed that would blind you and head straight out into the industry,” said Warren in an interview Wednesday with Yahoo’s Katie Couric.
{mosads}”Not because they bring great expertise and insight but because they’re selling access back in to their former colleagues who are still writing policy, who are still making laws,” she continued.
Cantor on Tuesday joined Moelis & Co., a global investment bank, as vice chairman and managing director. His base salary is $400,000 with an initial $1.4 million in cash and stocks, plus another $1.6 million incentive next year.
The new job comes less than a month after Cantor resigned from Congress after suffering a shocking defeat in his June GOP primary to Tea Party challenger Dave Brat.
In her Wednesday interview, Warren touted her push to reduce student loan interest rates and raise the minimum wage, seeking to draw a contrast with those she said were too close to Wall Street interests.
The Massachusetts senator is also seen as a possible 2016 Democratic contender, with some progressives believing she can challenge front-runner Hillary Clinton from the left. Warren repeated her denials, saying that she is “not running for president” and is focused on helping Democrats in November’s midterms.
Warren also sidestepped a question about whether former Secretary of State Clinton was “too cozy” with Wall Street.
“I worry a lot about the relationship between all of our regulators, government and Wall Street,” she said.
Pressed on Clinton, she insisted, “I worry across the board.”
“We’ve got a Washington now that works for anyone who can hire armies of lobbyists and lawyers and it doesn’t work for regular families,” the former Harvard Law School professor said.