Former Dem Labor secretary: Reject Wall Street donations

Robert Reich, the Labor secretary under former President Clinton, is urging the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) to reject money from big banks.

In a fundraising email sent to progressives on Tuesday, Reich blasted Wall Street over a report that big banks are considering freezing campaign donations to Senate Democrats until Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) softens her criticism of financial institutions.

{mosads}”Good riddance,” Reich wrote in the email sent through Democracy For America, a progressive group. “Democrats don’t need their money.”

“They are using this as a threat. The big banks want Democrats to stop listening to Elizabeth Warren and other progressive voices and start doing what Wall Street demands,” he added. 

Reich said “it’s time we went on offense … we’ve got to fight back.”

Reuters reported last week that officials from Wall Street giants, including Citigroup, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, talked about withholding campaign donations to Senate Democrats.

Warren seized on the report, fundraising off the threat.

“The big banks have issued a threat, and it’s up to us to fight back,” she told supporters in an email.