Warren allies and former Obama administration officials trade barbs in report on their 'simmering bitterness'

There remains a "simmering bitterness" between many former Obama administration officials and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), as described in a new Politico report containing some brutal quotes from both sides.

Former Obama administration officials in interviews with Politico go after Warren, who Obama in 2010 named special adviser to the Treasury secretary on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as a "professional critic," "sanctimonious,” and a "condescending narcissist." Warren has frequently been critical of former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and White House National Economic Council chief Larry Summers, in particular.

"We're with Barack," a former Treasury aide told Politico of the administration's feelings toward with Warren. "We're the liberals. Why are you pissing in our face?" Another former administration official said, "She loved herself and some of her staff had a God view of her and that’s not aligned with government and bureaucrats which require teamwork."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Meanwhile, people who worked with Warren at the time but don't serve on her 2020 campaign hit back, with one telling Politico, "Tim and Larry and those guys, they are the villains of the Woody Guthrie song,” a reference to the lyric "some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen." Another Warren ally mocked the former administration officials by saying, "Obama called the bankers fat cats once and spent seven years feeling bad about it."

Read the full report, which details a "far more combative relationship" between Warren and the Obama administration "than she usually discusses on the campaign trail," at Politico.