Elizabeth Warren in Interviews during 2017-2019

On War & Peace: No intervention in Yemen; but intervention in Gaza OK

• Her Peace Action voting record is 84% and she was one of the first five Senators to cosponsor the Yemen War Powers bill in March 2018 [requiring Congressional authorization to arm the Saudis in Yemen].
• In 2014 she supported Israel's invasion of Gaza that left more than 2,000 dead, and blamed the civilian casualties on Hamas.
• She opposed a bill to criminalize boycotting Israel and condemned Israel's use of deadly force against peaceful Gaza protesters in 2018.

On Corporations: Use anti-trust to break up anti-competitive businesses

A: You want to run a platform, that's fine. You don't get to run a whole bunch of the businesses as well. You want to run a business, that's fine. You don't get to run the platform. Think of it this way: It's like in baseball. You can be the umpire or you can own one of the teams, but you don't get to be the umpire and own the teams.

Q: If you had your way, Facebook would have to sell off Instagram? Amazon would have to sell off Whole Foods?

A: All those little businesses that they're running, competing businesses. Yep.

Q: Who is the federal government to tell these companies they have to do that?

A: There's anti-trust law. It's been around for more than a hundred years. And the federal government has done this many times, for example, broke up Standard Oil, broke up the great monopolies of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. And the reason for that is so that we can keep a competitive economy.

On Corporations: Breakup online monopolies; wealth shouldn't be concentrated

On Tax Reform: Comparison of Trump wealth tax to Warren wealth tax

1. He wanted the tax to be a one-time levy that would reduce the national debt and therefore reduce interest service payments. Warren's plan would simply levy a smaller tax each year.
2. He wanted a fairly hefty rate--14.5%. Warren's rate structure is much lower than that.
3. He set the threshold for his tax lower. While Warren wants to tax fortunes worth more than $50 million, Trump proposed taxing wealth starting at $10 million. This was in 1999; in inflation-adjusted dollars, that's $15 million.

On Abortion: Legal abortions are safer than tonsillectomies

Warren became the subject of increased scrutiny and rhetorical attacks from the right in January 2019, after she declared she was in the running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020. Against that background, a viral meme re-emerged on social media:

"'Having an abortion is no different than someone having their tonsils removed.'--Liberal Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren. Yes, she really said this."

In reality, Warren did not make these remarks. Warren was making a point about the relative safety of the procedure: On 24 July 2018, in Marie Claire magazine, Warren wrote: "When abortions are illegal, women don't stop getting them--they just risk their lives to do it. Today, thanks to Roe, getting an abortion is safer than getting your tonsils out. Before Roe v. Wade, many women turned to back-alley butchers to end their pregnancies."

On Tax Reform: 2% wealth tax on assets over $50M; 3% over $1B

On Education: Support teacher unions on this time of crisis

• Education and college costs: Wants to make public college free.
• Warren has supported efforts aimed at lowering college costs. She backed a 2017 bill--introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.--that would have eliminated out tuition for many students attending public colleges.
• She also backed a proposal from Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, that would have let students attend public colleges without having to take on any loans to pay for tuition, room and board, books, or other expenses.
• She said in a July, 2018 speech that "this is a time of crisis" for the country's teachers, and has supported teachers unions.
• This week, she tweeted support for the Los Angeles teachers who began striking on Tuesday.

On Energy & Oil: Supports the idea of a Green New Deal

• Climate change: Supports reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• Warren favors forcing public companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions and any potential effects climate change might have on their businesses.
• She also supports "the idea of a Green New Deal," a broad package of proposals floated by some Democrats and environmental groups aimed at taking action against climate change.
• But while Warren fielded questions from voters about climate change at an Iowa event this month, she did not focus on the issue the day she announced she was forming a presidential exploratory committee.

On War & Peace: Withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria

• Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria: U.S. should withdraw troops from those countries.
• Warren, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, supports reducing the U.S. military's presence in some global hotspots.
• Last November, she called for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.
• Warren also says the U.S. should withdraw service members from Iraq and Syria, though she has not gone into detail about what timetables she would support for those withdrawals.

On Corporations: Wants workers to choose 40% of corporate boards

On Government Reform: Supports a lifetime ban on officials becoming lobbyists