President Obama has been cowed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren into dropping his nomination of Antonio Weiss to a high-level Treasury Department position following weeks of protest.
Weiss requested for his nomination to be withdrawn because he did not want to be a distraction to the White House, he said in a letter to the president obtained by Politico. “I do not believe that the Treasury Department would be well served by the lengthy confirmation process my renomination would likely entail,” he wrote.
Obama had nominated Weiss to serve as Under Secretary for Domestic Finance — the third-ranking position at the Treasury Department.
He has years of experience on Wall Street and is the head of investment banking for a successful financial firm, Lazard, which his supporters have argued makes him qualified for the position. He is also a major Democratic donor, and the publisher of progressive magazine Paris Review.
But Warren said she is fed up with Obama and the Democratic party allowing Wall Street to dominate Washington, and vowed to vote against his nomination. She drummed up furious opposition to the nominee among progressive Democrats in and out of Congress.
“[At] some point we have to recognize that there are other types of experience besides working on Wall Street that qualify people to do [these jobs],” she told a group of donors in December. (RELATED: Warren Leads The Charge Against Obama’s Treasury Nominee)
His decision is a win for Warren, who may or may not be gearing up for a presidential run in 2016. (RELATED: MoveOn.Org Is Begging Warren To Run)
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