Sen. Elizabeth Warren says Congress could work with Trump to cap credit card rates
Washington — Sen. Elizabeth Warren and President Trump don't agree on much, but Warren suggests they might be able to work together on capping credit card interest rates and potentially addressing other cost-of-living issues.
Mr. Trump has expressed a desire to cap credit card rates, something that Warren, a progressive Democrat from Massachusetts, has long supported. Late Friday, Mr. Trump proposed capping rates at 10% for one year. After Warren delivered a speech Monday morning criticizing Mr. Trump's record on affordability issues and saying he should pick up the phone to do something about capping credit card interest, Warren said the president called her.
"After my speech, the president called me, and I delivered this same message on affordability to him directly," Warren said in a statement. "I told him that Congress can pass legislation to cap credit card rates if he will actually fight for it."
Speaking to CBS News Monday afternoon, Warren noted that she has long supported such a plan.
"I had said at the time when he announced this a year ago, I said, great — I had been proposing that for years. Let's do it! And what's Donald Trump done since then? Nothing," she said.
Warren said she and the president also discussed housing costs.
"While I had a chance to talk to him, I raised the question of how we reduce housing costs. We've got a bill that has passed the Senate unanimously to expand the supply of housing, but Republicans over in the House have hung it up. And Donald Trump has not lifted a finger to get that bill passed on through," she said.
The president hasn't shared his side of the phone call.
Capping credit card interest rates would be a tall order for a Republican-controlled Congress, though a handful of congressional Republicans have backed the idea, including Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna.
Banks and other credit card issuers are strongly opposed to the idea, arguing a limit on interest rates could force banks to cut off access for millions of people, especially higher-risk borrowers. A coalition of industry groups, including the American Bankers Association, said Friday that a 10% cap "would reduce credit availability and be devastating for millions of American families and small business owners."
Bank stocks dipped after Mr. Trump proposed the rate cap over the weekend.
Warren and Mr. Trump have long been vocal in their criticism of each other. On the campaign trail in 2016 and since, he sometimes referred to her as "Pocahontas" after Warren claimed to have some Cherokee Nation heritage.
Warren also criticized the Justice Department's investigation into the Federal Reserve and its chairman, Jerome Powell, over renovations to the Fed's headquarters building. Watch her full interview in the video on this page.