THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019 The Boston Globe The Nation A
By Victoria McGrane
GLOBE STAFF
A tense debate exchange
with Senator Elizabeth Warren
over who gets credit for the cre-
ation of a consumer watchdog
prompted a fresh round of crit-
icism of former vice president
Joe Biden and his ability to
navigate a gender landscape
that’s shifted profoundly in re-
cent years.
Seeking to showcase her
track record of getting things
done, Warren on Tuesday night
laid out how she conceived of
and fought to create a new con-
sumer agency to protect regu-
lar folks from greedy banks —
overcoming Wall Street lobby-
ists who hated it and Washing-
ton insiders who said it was im-
possible.
Biden jumped in during the
forum on CNN.
“I went on the floor and got
you votes. I got votes for that
bill,” Biden said, heatedly, stab-
bing his hand in Warren’s di-
rection as she looked straight
ahead. “I convinced people to
vote for it. So let’s get those
things straight, too.”
“I am deeply grateful to
PresidentObama,whofought
so hard to make sure that agen-
cy was passed into law,” Warren
replied, speaking slowly. The
audience laughed, as did
Biden. Warren didn’t smile.
In one sense, it was another
attack-and-parry in a night
marked by attacks on Warren
by her many rivals, now that
she’s moved to the front of the
pack.
But for many Democratic
women watching, the ex-
change was something else: fa-
miliar.
“Wow, a man taking credit
for a woman’s work, how origi-
nal,” tweeted Amanda Litman,
cofounder of Run for Some-
thing, a progressive group that
recruits and supports young,
diverse Democrats in running
for office.
“It was cringe-worthy,” said
Kelly Dittmar, assistant profes-
sor of political science at Rut-
gers University Camden and a
scholar at the Center for Amer-
ican Women and Politics.
Anger is the emotion it
prompted for Stephanie Taylor,
cofounder of the Progressive
Change Campaign Committee,
a grass-roots group backing
Warren. In an e-mail to the
group’s 1 million followers sent
out Wednesday, Taylor said,
“Every woman can recognize
herself in that moment —
watching a man take public
credit for her professional ac-
complishments.”
She asked members to share
their own similar experiences
as well as thoughts about
Biden’s remarks.
There’s no question that the
Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau, as the consumer
watchdog is known, was War-
ren’s brainchild, and that she
was a key player in fighting
publicly and behind the scenes
to ensure it was included in the
landmark 2010 financial over-
haul law known as Dodd-
Frank.
Whether Biden’s role is as
significant as he suggested is
less clear. It certainly wasn’t
highly visible. Some advocates
involved in pushing for the CF-
PB — along with reporters who
closely covered the legislation
— say they have no memory of
him being involved, but negoti-
ations on the bill often hap-
pened behind closed doors.
Former senator Chris Dodd,
one of the chief architects of
the financial law, said in an in-
terview “we wouldn’t have
been able to get the bill done”
without the involvement of the
Obama administration, includ-
ingBiden.
Warren “was critical in the
debate, obviously cared a lot
about it,” the Connecticut Dem-
ocrat said. “Joe was helpful and
the administration was help-
ful.”
Referring to the debate
about who deserves credit for
the law, he added: “This is mole
hill stuff we’re talking about
here.”
Several Obama administra-
tion officials involved in the
legislative process back then
said that Biden was deeplycommitted to the consumer
agency.
Jared Bernstein, an econo-
mist who served as a top advis-
er to Biden when he was vice
president, tweeted about the
dust-up.
“I was there: Biden fought
hard to get votes for Dodd/
Frank & to make sure Sen War-
ren’s idea for a CFPB came to
fruition,” he wrote.
Biden also advocated for the
Wall Street overhaul bill in
speeches, pitching it in popu-
list terms.
“As Vice President, Joe
Biden worked side-by-side with
President Obama to save our
economy from the Great Reces-
sion and win support for new
safeguards against Wall Street’s
recklessness to prevent anoth-
er crash, including the CFPB,”
Biden campaign spokeswoman
Kate Bedingfield said. “Vice
President Biden has an unpar-
alleled record of delivering pro-
gressive change — not just talk-
ing about it.”
Asked on MSNBC after the
debate about Biden’s claim,
Warren said, “If that’s what
Vice President Biden says, I
take him at his word on that.”
Regardless of Biden’s contri-
bution, several analysts said
that the exchange with Warren
added another incident to a list
of gender-related stumbles he’s
made in the race. Together, the
episodes could hurt him
among female voters, a vital
component of the Democratic
base, these analysts said.
Other examples of Biden’s
behavior with women and girls
that have sparked controversy
include telling the brothers of a
13-year-old girl that their job is
to “keep the guys away from
your sister,” and making re-
peated jokes — after he had
vowed to be “more mindful” of
others’ personal space — about
the fact several women had
publicly said he had touched
them in ways that made them
feel uncomfortable.Victoria McGrane can be
reached at
[email protected].Debate exchange draws criticism
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