NBC10 Boston's Mary Markos got a chance to sit down with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday, who hit on a variety of topics, including the ongoing Steward Health Care crisis, why she thinks former President Donald Trump won't debate Vice President Kamala Harris, the Massachusetts migrant shelter crisis, and more. The full transcript of the interview appears below.
Mary Markos: Thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate your time. So let's get right to it. Steward Health Care is planning to close down two hospitals in Massachusetts. They're blaming their financial squeeze on inadequate government payments. What do you think about all of this?
Sen. Elizabeth Warren: Look, I am so frustrated about what Steward Hospitals is doing, but what I am most frustrated about is Ralph Delatorre is still in charge there. So here we are. We've gone into bankruptcy now. This company is now in bankruptcy. And it's Ralph Delatorre who's negotiating the deals. It's Ralph De la Torre who's deciding which hospital stay open and which ones are closed. It's Ralph de la Torre who is negotiating with the state and wants to take $30 million from the state and spend it how Ralph de la Torre wants to spend it. And it's Ralph de la Torre who is not investigating whether or not Ralph de la Torre’s wrongdoings got Steward into this mess and whether or not he should have to disgorge some of the money that he has taken out of this hospital system. I'm just really frustrated that this guy is still in charge. That's not right.
Markos: Do you think that there needs to be a federal probe into their financial situation?
Warren: Absolutely. I also think there needs to be a trustee running the country company, not Ralph Delatorre.
Markos: Anything else on Steward before I move on to another subject?
Warren: One more thing I'll just add on Steward -- it is really important that the Steward hospitals stay open. They serve communities that need them. This is part of what our hospitals are and why it is that we need to change the laws. So these Wall Street guys, these private equity guys cannot come in and hollow out our hospitals, take $1 billion out of our hospital system and leave nothing behind but a shell that is no longer financially viable. We’ve got to change the laws overall to make sure it doesn't happen in Massachusetts again and again and again.
Politics
Markos: And then on the next subject, Vice President Kamala Harris is sort of challenging Trump to, quote, ‘Say it to my face’ and stick to a debate that he already committed to on September 10th. Do you stand with her on those calls?
Warren: You bet I do. Good for her. You know, this is the thing about Kamala Harris. She has pulled our party together and she is ready to go toe to toe with Donald Trump. And Donald Trump is clearly afraid of that. I think he's afraid of tough women. He is certainly afraid of a prosecutor. This will be the debate where a convicted felon meets a prosecutor on a stage for all of America to see. And I think that Vice President Harris is right to say, “You agreed to debate the other guy, why won't you debate me?” She's going to be the nominee for the Democrats. The Democrats and the Republicans should meet on a national stage here. And I think that Kamala Harris will do a great job. And I think that's exactly the reason that Donald Trump doesn't want to meet her.
Markos: Any thoughts on who she should pick for a running mate?
Warren: You know, I look at it this way. She is vice president. She's had this job for three and a half years and Joe Biden has very much treated her as a partner and somebody he could rely on. He could ask her to do hard jobs, other jobs, things to be done. I think that what she will be looking for is someone that she can rely on as a partner. And I think that's the right approach and I support her in that.
Markos: Excellent. And then for the next subject, we're talking about the Hamas political leader who was killed in Iran. I just want to get your reaction and also ask if you're concerned that this might risk escalating the war in the Middle East.
Warren: Look, I am very, very concerned about escalation. We need to get to a cease-fire. We need to get to the return of the hostages. We need to get to humanitarian relief. And most of all, we need to push the parties -- both parties -- toward coming to the negotiating table and working out a solution. And that's a two-state solution where two different peoples can live side by side with respect, with self-determination and in long-term peace. That's the direction we've got to be moving.
Markos: And then the state's emergency shelter system has been overwhelmed for months now. The governor just recently added a new change that does not prioritize migrant families in Massachusetts. How do you think that the situation is being handled or could be handled better in the state?
Warren: I want to acknowledge the governor is doing her best with very limited resources. And she's trying to find the most humane and the most effective way to distribute those and to provide the support that's needed. What I'm trying to do from the federal level is speed up work permits so that more migrants who are here can go out and do jobs that people in Massachusetts want them to do. We've got employers who are saying, I'd like to be able to hire this person in my restaurant. I'd like to be able to hire this person to help clean in my office building and migrants who want to be able to do that work and support themselves. But right now, under federal law, there are restrictions on their ability to do that. I've been trying to speed up those work permits so more people can get to work.
Second thing that we need to do at the federal level is that we need to get more resources into the states that are supporting migrants. You know, we were negotiating a deal on that. And unfortunately, two days before it was to be voted on in the United States Senate, Donald Trump told all of the Republicans who had negotiated the deal who supported the deal -- my view was the deal was still missing Some important elements -- but all of the Republicans who had built this deal and helped negotiate it. Donald Trump, two days before we're going to vote on it, blew the whistle and told them all to vote no because he wanted chaos at the border. He wanted chaos in our cities because he thought it was going to help him in a reelection campaign. So this is someone who just put himself above the good of our country. We need a long-term solution on immigration and the way we're going to do that is through Congress. The power of the president is limited. Congress really needs to work. And it's more resources at the border. It's more resources in the states that are supporting. And it's a pathway to citizenship for our Dreamers, for people who serve in our military, for the essential workers who helped us out during COVID. That comprehensive package is something that I know Vice President Harris wants and that she is willing to work with Congress on so for me, everything That's going on right now is about let's get Vice President Harris and a Democratic majority in the House and the Senate and negotiate a real immigration package, rather than Donald Trump, who just wants more chaos.
Markos: And I want to touch on the pension cuts, too, that saved pensions for about 72,000 teamsters across New England. What’s your reaction?
Warren: So I am just over the moon about the fact that President Biden has now made sure that the New England pension fund has the resources it needs so that our so that Teamsters, when they reach retirement, can retire with dignity and so that their spouses will be protected in their retirement years. You know, I just want to remind you about the background of this. The Teamsters -- for decades when Teamsters did work – they contributed to their pension funds. They did everything on the up and up. And then they got drawn in by the hedge funds and Wall Street banks. And during the crash In 2008, it took down the Teamsters pension fund. And they've been struggling ever since.
This is something, by the way, that Vice President Harris and I originally worked on coming out of the crash of 2008. She was attorney general of California. I was setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as we were trying to push back against these giant banks.
Finally, three years ago with President Biden in the White House, the Biden-Harris Administration leading us and Democratic Control in the House and in the Senate, we were able to pass a bill that put money and made it available for the Teamsters pension funds.
Every single Republican voted against it, but the Democrats felt that this is something our nation should do, so that Teamsters would have the opportunity to retire with dignity. Other pension funds got help from other sources through the years this one was still left behind and the gap was enormous. And this is a time for the United States government to step up on behalf of hardworking people who did nothing wrong. So I'm celebrating today. I wish the Republicans had been willing to join us on this, but we had enough Democrats to get it done by ourselves and to support our Teamsters.
Markos: And I know you have to run, but did you want to touch on Biden's recent guidance on SCOTUS before you go?
Warren: Yes, I think when the president spoke last week to the nation explaining why he had stepped inside, he was telling us two things. The first one is why it was important for him to pass the torch because it was more important to keep someone like Donald Trump out of the White House than his own personal ambition -- the president's personal ambition. And I know he's very worried about Donald Trump, who has said he wants to be dictator for a day and who talks about his love for other dictators around the world.
But the second thing the president was also saying to us is the Supreme Court is now out of control. They don't follow basic ethics rules. They take gifts from people who've have cases in front of them and they're no longer following the law and the Constitution. So this Extremist Supreme Court is the one that overturned Roe versus Wade. After those justices all swore that were going to respect precedent, current law, but it's also the Supreme Court that said, “Sure, the president can be a king and won't be bound by the same laws that bind everyone else.”
It's also the Supreme Court that said, “No, we don't think Congress should decide, for example, that the Environmental Protection Agency should be making sure that your children are breathing clean air.” They think that should be left to the courts to decide what the agencies can and cannot do. And what the president was saying is this: “The Supreme Court is no longer in the constitutional balance between the courts, Congress and the president. And we need to make some changes in the law and the changes he's asked for - one is around ethics. Good. The other one is more fairness around the Supreme Court Justices. He basically said put term limits. And every time somebody gets elected to be president, they'll basically get two nominees to the Supreme Court. And that'll be true whether you're a Democrat or Republican. But it'll get some balance back into this court. And I think that's President Biden saying to our nation there are two things that need to be done to save our democracy. And a reminder that come November 5th who is president will certainly be on the ballot, but what happens in the Supreme Court, in effect, will be on the ballot right along with them.
Markos: Thank you so much, Senator. I really appreciate your time.
Warren: Thank you for having me.
