Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, a prominent voice on the Democratic party’s left wing, has yet to endorse either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton for the party’s presidential nomination. Pressed on the question on CBS on Thursday (March 17), she said both candidates are putting up a good fight and talking about the issues that affect the American people.
But she still refused to give an answer.
One possible explanation: Warren and Clinton have a complicated history, dating back to when Clinton was first lady and Warren was a professor at Harvard. If you have five minutes, watch this video—it takes a crucial turn at the 3:30 mark:
If you don’t have time: Warren wrote an op-ed opposing legislation that would overhaul bankruptcy law, saying it overly favored credit card companies over consumers, especially women on child support. After meeting with Warren, Clinton was quickly won over and lobbied her husband to veto the legislation, which he did.
Fast forward a few years, when Clinton was a senator for New York, who received substantial contributions from Wall Street. The bill came up again and she voted for it.
In addition to the Bill Moyers video above, Warren also detailed Clinton’s alleged flip-flop in her 2003 book, which was resurfaced by the Sanders campaign last month.
But the story is not quite that simple. Clinton, for her part, says she “held her nose” when she initially voted for the bill, on the condition that amendments that would protect women would be included in the final bill. It ultimately did not come up for a final vote. And in 2005, when the bill came up again in a different political situation, as The Washington Post explains, Clinton came out against it.
“I didn’t like the bill any more than I had liked it before. It still had very bad provision. But I also pushed hard for a deal to protect women and children,” she told CNN.