and as well as stella, one of our wonderful dogs watching. thanks for watching. that does it for us tonight. i'm "kasie dc." up next. "headliners" and a look at elizabeth warren and her fight to become the next presidential nominee. for now good night from washington. \s >> we do not back down. we do shut up. >> she came to washington ready to fight. fierce and fearless. >> at best you are incompetent. at worse you were complicit. and either way you should be fired. >> people ask me times. >> let me just follow up. >> is elizabeth warren the person she play on tv? and the answer is yes. >> our agenda is america's agenda. >> elizabeth warren in a revealing ib depth interview zpli learned about fighting in

washington. i learned about fighting against those with power. >> she's confrontational. she's smarter than any wall street banker and tougher than any nfl linebacker. >> donald trump is a two bit con man. >> and a liberal fire brand who can take the heat. >> pocahontas is not happy. she's not happy. she's the worst. >> pretty unenthusiastic about the possibility of elizabeth warren. >> she's starting to really understand, a lightning rod is not necessarily a bad thing. >> no matter what they throw at us, we persist. >> how far will that take her? >> it is not a question of are you ready? it is a question of what the country needs. ♪ >> this is a moment when we should dream big, fight hard and take back our country.

thank you. >> elizabeth warren t senior senator from massachusetts takes the first step towards a 2020 run for white house on december 31, 2018. by posting a video on her campaign website. >> today i'm launching an exploratory committee for president. >> is this the right place? >> even though the announcement's been widely expected, it generates a buzz around washington and on the air waves. >> breaking news. the highest profile democrat yet officially weighting into the presidential waters. >> its officially begun. you have a democrat in the race for president now senator elizabeth warren from massachusetts. >> you are the first household named democratic. the first heavyweight to announce that you are going to go ahead with this splortly committee. where are you going first? >> well, look, i want to be in this fight. because this is in my view the fundamental question that faces our country.

what does washington work for? washington is working great, fabulously for the wealthy and well connected. i think that washington ought to work for everybody else. >> warren's first trip to the all important primary state of iowa draws large enthusiastic crowds. >> so the bad news is i've caught a cold. the good news is, nevertheless i persist. >> how do you debate someone who isn't interested in stability or facts? >> did you have someone specific in mind? >> we have to get out there and be clear about what we're fighting for. and then we've got to show we're willing to fight for it. it is not enough just o the talk the talk. we've actually got to be willing to get out and walk the walk. >> and she's done exactly that.

over the course of her career as a low professor, consumer advocate and politician, warren has made a name for herself fighting for regular folks. taking on the nations financial elite and the powerfully entrenchd in washington. as a united states senator one of her most defining moments takes place during the confirmation of then nominee for attorney general jeff sessions. >> she was warned. she was given an explanation. nevertheless she persisted. >> part of me sort of said, oh mitch mcconnell you chose the wrong woman to fight with. >> it was a fight that started a movement. >> i rise today to express my strong opposition to the nomination of senator sessions. >> she's arguing against jeff sessions to be attorney general in early 2017. >> a person who has exhibited so much hostility to the enforcement of those laws.

>> the senator is reminded that as a violation of rule 19. >> rule 19 says you do not cast dispersions on the character of a fellow senator. >> she's reprimanded but not deterred. >> mrs. kings views and words ring true today. >> after reading a letter from the lathe credit that scott king who opposed sessions to be a federal judge in 1986, she's interrupted again. >> mr. president, senator warren quote, said senator sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens. i call the senator to order under provision of rule >> mr. president, i'm surprised that the words of caretta scott king are not suitable for debate in the united states senate. i appeal the ruling. >> the senator will take her steed. >> shockingly warren is barred

from speaking. >> she was warned. she was given an explanation. nevertheless he persisted. >> the suggestion that recites the words of the great caretta scott king would force her to sit down and be silent is outrageous. >> it was clearly meant to silence, words they didn't want to hear. not words that were inappropriate. >> attorney general jeff sessions. >> jeff sessions is confirmed. it is a loss for warren but her team capitalizes on the reprimand, plastering it on merchandise to raise money for her reelection to the senate. >> a moment to galvanize those around her. >> that is our job. >> outspoken and unapologetic. elizabeth warren takes a leading role raling against the trump administration.

>> we'll been a together to fight donald trump. >> it is a role she first embraced when president trump was candidate trump in the spring of 2016. >> she was listening to the indiana primary results come in, republican side. >> well the takeover is complete now. it is trump's republican party. >> trump wins overwhelmingly and she was so sort of apalled by there. she wrote a series of posts that were very critical of trump. >> days later trump tweets back launching a personal attack about her claim and her heritage. >> and they got into this real time back and forth. >> the twitter war comes the life on the campaign trail. >> she says because her cheekbones were high that she's an indian. that she was native american. >> kissing the fannies of the poor misunderstood wall street bankers. >> pocahontas is not happy. she's not happy. theist the worst. >> donald trump is a two bit con man. >> she absolutely has gotten

under trump's skin and trump does not like being taken on by powerful people, particularly powerful women. >> warren is one of the leading voices of the democratic party today. yet she's only been a senator since 2013 and her path to washington has been anything but straightforward. her life is a story of real perseverance and unexpected turns. and that narrative starts from the very beginning. >> i was a late in life baby, as they used to be called back then. and my mother always called me the surprise. i was about 30 before it occurred to me what that meant. >> elizabeth ann herring is born june 22, 1949 in oklahoma city, oklahoma. she's the youngest of four and the only girl in donald and pauline herring's family. >> they always saw themselves as middle class people.

for them the distinction was they used good english. and they didn't say "ain't." >> but her middle class upbringing is threatened when she's just 12 years old. >> my daddy had a heart attack. and when that happened it just turned our life upside down. she was out of work a long time. the medical bills pile up. we lost the family station wagon. right on the edge of losing our home. when it was my mother who pulls on her best dress, dries her eyes. puts on her high heels and walks to the sears and gets a minimum wage job. my mother saved our family. she saved our house. >> the family gets by, but there isn't enough money to fulfill her dream of going to college. and that is not the only hurdle. >> my mother's message to me always was find a good provider, get married.

my mother thought i was a pretty iffy case on marriage. >> it is the middle of the 1960s, in the middle of oklahoma. and the young girl from the hardland is starting to find her voice on the high school debate team. >> she felt that her world at home was pretty confining in a lot of ways. and this allowed her to think about big picture questions. >> she's a natural, winning state competitions and she realizes this talent could help her go to college. >> i was a girl with plan. and my plan was if i could get in and get a full scholarship. who could complain? >> she lands a debate scholarship to georgia washington university. but other priorities soon take over. >> i was 19 and i was in love. and the first boy i ever dated had come back into my life. and in a very short space of time he proposed to me, and i said yes. and i thought oh great.

and left it all behind. >> coming up -- >> i was failing at everything. i felt like a terrible mother. dinner was always late. every child care arrangement fell apart. late every child care arrangement fell apart stress can affect o. i call this dish, "stress." stress can also affect our bodies. so, i'm partnering with cigna to remind you that your emotional and physical health are more connected than you think. go in for your annual check-up. and be open with your doctor about anything you feel. physically, and emotionally. body and mind. cigna. together, all the way. that's better. need a change of scenery? kayak searches hundreds of travel sites

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that's how xfinity makes tv... simple. easy. awesome. receipt me let me hear it. our agenda is america's agenda. and if we fight for it we win. >> similar elizabeth warren is a trail blazing winning. but in 1998 she's a newly married college dropout struggling to begin a new career. >> i couldn't quite give up the dream of teaching. i really wanted to teach. that meant i had to find a way to get back to college. and i went to a commuter college. and i knew that was my second chance. and i hung on for dear life.

>> the warrens moved to new jersey in 1970, where she teaches special needs kids at a public school before giving birth to o'nealia. >> my husband said stay home. we'll have more children. you will love this. and i was very rest les about it. i went back home to oklahoma for christmas and saw a bunch of the boys that i'd been in high school debate with. and they had all gone on to law school. and they said you should go to law school. you will love it. >> she takes their advice. and after persuading her husband warren enrolls at rutgers university law school. the day amelia turns two. >> i took to law school like a pig takes to mud. this was fabulous. i loved law school. >> at graduation, warren is 8 months pregnant with her second child and conflicted about the future. >> alex was born about three weeks after i graduated. and it was the hardest moment in my life. i thought because i didn't take

a job right out of law school it was all over. >> liz is never one to like sit and feel sorry for herself. so she put out a shingle, elizabeth warren attorney at law. she's like i'm doing real estate closes. like how the heck do you know how to do a real estate closing. this is before the internet, right? she's like well, i just looked it up in books, and no problem. >> when the family moves to texas, she joins the university of houston, teaching contract law and courses on business and finance. the demands of a full-time job and family are overwhelming. >> basically i was failing at everything. i was -- i felt like a terrible mother. dinner was always late. every child care arrangement fell apart. >> and i think she was getting quite discouraged and didn't know how she was going to do this. >> warren's career is in jeopardy. until her beloved aunt b. comes

to the rescue. >> she said, so how's it going honey? and i just started to cry. and i said, "i'm going to have to quit." and she said, well, i can't get there tomorrow. but i can get there thursday. and she arrived with seven suitcases and buddy the pekinese. and they stayed for 16 years. >> having solved the child care issue, which is an issue for so many women, it just propelled her forward. >> she never would have gone on to become the person she is. >> but aunt b. doesn't solve everything. warren's desire to pursue her career causes friction with her husband. >> he indulged her career and interest in the law but told her that doesn't mean you can stop doing everything at home. >> the couple divorces in 1980. and elizabeth warren becomes a single mother at 31 years old at

a time when women are struggling to climb the ladder in the workplace. >> i remember my obsession became balancing my checkbook. so i would sometimes late at night after i'd do my homework and get everything ready for the next day, i go back to the bedroom and pull out my checkbook and add all the numbers again just to make sure i had enough to make it to the next paycheck. and the next part and the next part. >> as she juggles a career and two kids she falls in love with a professor named bruceman. >> i still remember the first time i ever noticed him. he had on shorts. great legs. >> less than a year after they meet she bucks tradition. >> i watched him one night teach. i was sitting in the back of the room. he came over and he said, well, what did you think? and i looked up and i said, what can i say, will you marry me? and he said, yes. >> the family moves to austin in 1983, where warren lands a

tenured job at the university of texas. she volunteers to teach a course she's never taught before, bankruptcy. >> i remember approaching it with some real skepticism. you know, my family had had hard times. and we never declared bankruptcy. so surely the people who did declare bankruptcy, maybe they were trying to game the system. >> warren begins what will become decades of study into the causes of bankruptcy. the research has an effect on her political views. >> i have a long period where i'm just not political at all. i'm a registered republican. and then i get deeply involved in the bankruptcy research. >> over time she's surprised by what she learns. >> what you heard were basically people who worked hard, who played by the rule, who did everything they could and then, it was that one event that, bam. somebody got sick.

somebody lost a job. somebody ran off or died. and this life that had been going along pretty good just suddenly starts tumbling off a cliff. and that bankruptcy is their handhold on the way down. and what happened over times, my politics shifted. >> warren is offered a tenured position at harvard law school in 1995. stepping into a world few women enter. >> one time elizabeth invited us to have lunch at the harvard faculty club. and i'd never been there before. >> you sort of look around and you say, real we're the only wo here. >> the 1980s and 90s are a time when more and more americans go broke. the ivy league professor is asked sit on a commission to review bankruptcy laws in 1995. >> it starts with flat wages, goes to rising healthcare costs. rising housing coasts.

rising costs of getting a kid educated and how the middle class starts coming under a squeeze. bankruptcy is the tail end of that. >> it would lead to her first battle for the little guy, taking on credit card companies who are pushing a bill that would make it harder for people to declare bankruptcy. >> this was a bankruptcy bill, where there was huge money behind it. behind politicians in both parties and yet she fought it ferociously because she believed it would hurt ordinary people. >> the experience would have a profound effect on warrens politics. >> the credit card companies start pushing for the changes they want. and that is when i make the shift. that is when i become a democrat. >> when the republicans would come up with notions about how to change the bankruptcy code i'd bounce them off elizabeth warren and she'd tell me the real-world consequences. >> recent years too many people have abused the bankruptcy laws. >> warren is crushed when in 2005 a new bill is signed into law making it harder for people

to file for bankruptcy. >> we held them off for 10 years. for 10 years in the fight and in the end lost. lost big. the banks got basically everything they wanted. but there is something good that comes out of this story. and that is i've learned about fighting. i learned about fighting in washington. i learned about fighting against those with power. power he was 34% eastern european. so i went onto ancestry, soon learned that one of our ancestors we thought was italian was eastern european. this is my ancestor who i didn't know about. he looks a little bit like me, yes. ancestry has many paths to discovering your story. get started for free at ancestry.com ♪ like i feel baby ♪ then come on, ♪, ♪ oh come on

♪ let's get it on, applebee's. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood.

professor elizabeth warren wastes no time in the halls of harvard. she earns a reputation for being tough and demanding. and there is one question she always asks her first year contract law students. one very few answered correctly. >> it is just three words that i ask at the beginning. what is a subsidy? >> and that is because that word is the first word in the first case that is assigned. >> i don't wait for volunteers. i just call on someone. i always have a seating chart.

i was stunned. i had no idea what the word assumpsit meant. after i saw her face i said i don't know. >> the case is about a doctor who gets sued. but he doesn't get sued because of malpractice. he gets sued because he made a contract, a promise. and that is what assumpsit is all about. >> she said she always had about 10 seconds in a classroom as she walks down the steps to guess who doesn't know it and has gotten good at knowing and she guessed me. >> true. i walk in. i think it is probably less than 10 seconds and it is not that i'm looking for someone who doesn't know. i'm looking for someone who will survive having been called on first in law school. >> the subprime mortgage mess claims a new victim. lehman brothers declares bankruptcy. >> the worst financial crisis in modern times. >> now with the financial markets in disarray all sides have to pick up the pieces. >>ed fall of 2008 the financial system is on the brink of

collapse. the stock market plummets. panic spreads and another great depression seems imminent. >> we're in the midst of a serious financial crisis. and the federal government is responding with decisive action. >> congress establishes the troubled asset relief program, or t.a.r.p. in october 2008, authorizing 700 billion dollars in taxpayer money to bail out the countries financial institutions. at the same time congress creates a commission to watch over the program and to study possible regulatory reforms. >> the motion is adopted. >> professor elizabeth warren is tapped for the job. >> i'm at home in cambridge can and the phone rings and this man says. and i said who? and he said harry reid, the leader of the united states senate. >> i want you to come to washington. i want you to do something for me. and the country. >> and try to put some accountability on how this bail

out goes forward to try to hold these banks accountable for the money they were getting. and right on spot, i just said yes. >> she had written a book about how two wage earners have such a struggle. i just thought she would be good. and she was better even than i imagined. people in that commission. they selected her as a chairman out of all these big shots. >> she immediately impressed me as someone who was different and had this talent for explaining complicated things in ways that the rest of us could understand. >> these bad mortgages, and the securities that were based on them became known as "toxic," or troubled assets. >> from the start warren presses the bush administration for answers on what they are doing with the money, helping the little guy or just the big banks. >> she never waivered from asking the question, what

actually is in the interest of the american public here in the financial crisis? >> and barack obama takes office in january 2009, he inherits the crisis. >> congratulations mr. president. >> with a new party in charge, a confrontational elizabeth warren continues to ratchet up the pressure on government officials. she's relentless in her questioning of treasury secretary timothy geithner. >> you are telling me that these counterparty obligations, these financial instruments that are bought by very sophisticated parties are going to be treated effectively like deposits in checking accounts and savings accounts. they ended up effectively with 100 cent on the dollar government guarantees for which they had never paid. >> warren just drove him crazy. >> understand she's not the only one that criticized him. but she was one of those that had some depth to what she was talking about. >> let me just follow up mr. secretary because i'm a little confused here. you were -- >> as a democratic she's

expected to be hard on republicans and soft on democrats. >> i want to push back on this a little bit -- >> she was supposed to defer to the very senior men who were running the bank bail out. and she did none of those things. >> aig has received about $70 billion in tart money. about a hundred billion dollars in loans from the fed. do you know where the money went? we just came at this very differently. and he was secretary of the treasury, and i wasn't. >> we had no power over what the treasury department did we only had the power to embarrass them i guess. >> there is one clear message from the president. and that is no matter how much money we pump into these financial institutions, until we change the rules that brought us to this crisis, we are not safe. >> coming up. >> i think she started to see that she's really going a lightning rod. kp kp here. ♪

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your hours top story.

senator lindsay graham is encouraging the president to reopen the government for several weeks as negotiations continue with democrats over funding for a border wall. >> a winter storm hit the mid atlantic sunday. i contributed to hundreds of cars accidents in many states and also knocked out power and caused severe travel delays. back to "headliners," elizabeth warren. ♪ as the country tries to pull itself out of the financial crisis, in 2009, it becomes clear that banks are being bailed out but taxpayers are not. unemployment surges, foreclosures climb. and americans watch in disbelief as 401(k)s shrink. congress is trying to not only fix the catastrophic problem, but prevent it from happening

again. harvard professor elizabeth warren sees an opening to push an idea she's had to protect average americans. >> we needed an agency in washington. one that would make sure that the large financial institutions didn't build their profit models around cheating people. kind of straightforward. >> she wrote about it before the crash in an article called "unsafe at any rate in the democracy journal". >> she framed it saying look there is a consumer protection agency to make sure your toast you are doesn't catch on fire but not one to make sure you don't lose your house. that's crazy. >> as moment built for a new agency she gained an ally in the white house. >> she made a very strong case for why this should be a priority for president obama. and it certainly seemed that the idea was consistent with president obama's view, which is that we are there to look out for the consumer. >> obama makes it a central part of his financial reform package.

>> we're proposing a new and powerful agency charged with just one job, looking out for ordinary consumers. >> wall street doesn't like it. nor do many in congress. >> this is an agency that will put no in innovation. >> warren works closely with congressman barney frank who steers the reforms through the house. >> she fully understood both the political constraints and the need to work around them rather than simply stamp your foot and hold your breathe and wish they would go away. >> she was doing a campaign inside washington and beyond. >> she takes her pitch to the public in the face of opposition. >> what i heard the president say on the face of consumer protection saijs it is not going down. >> and in the process charged john stewart on the daly show. >> either we fix this problem going forward or the game really is over. >> when you say it like that. and look at me like that, even though your husband is backstage, i still want to make out but w you.

>> this new bureaucracy would have unprecedented authority. >> i shi she's starting to see she's really going to be a lightning rod. and part of the education of elizabeth warren she's starting to really understand a lightning rod is not necessarily a bad thing. i'll own it. i'll own that lightning. let it hit me. >> after an intense fight, what's known as the dodd-frank act, known for the senator and congressman. >> the motion is agreed too. >> clears its final hurdle in the senate by a vote of 60-39 in july 2010. it gives the government new powers to regulate banks and the derivatives market and creates a council to monitor economic risks. >> the other big part of dodd-frank was in fact the consumer financial protection bureau. >> it is a big victory for elizabeth barney. -- warren. >> the bill signing was a bigot moment for the obama administration. it seemed obvious that elizabeth warren would be front and center. and so yeah we placed her right in the front row.

>> now the yes is, who will run this new agency? for many the answer is obvious. >> there were a lot of people who were highly engaged after the financial crisis in how the government was going to respond. and a lot of these people saw elizabeth warren as their champion. >> but there was a problem, in washington. she was so controversial and had so much opposition from, certainly republicans, and democrats. and democrats told obama that is she would not be confirmed. >> the white house felt this contentious senate confirmation process could drag on for month asks they wanted to start guilding the new agency now. >> the president only offers her a temporary job setting up the agency. >> she'll have direct access to me and secretary geithner and she'll oversee a staff at the treasury department that's already begun to work on this task. good luck. >> warren takes a leave of absence from harvard. as she sets up the agency, there

continues to be strong opposition to it and to her. especially from conservatives like then fox news host, glbeck >> i can't believe i believe in a country where that agency and practically every other agency is being run by someone, in this case it is elizabeth warren who, hates the free market system. wants to destroy it. and in some cases what a marxist or communist socialist utopia. >> many republicans in congress are also critical. >> we're pretty unenthusiastic about the possibility of elizabeth warren. >> to bam administration decides it is too polarizing. we can't nominate her. >> obama. this is early in his presidency. he wanted to avoid a fight if he could. >> instead, president obama nominates warren's colleague in july 2011. >> i asked elizabeth to find the best possible choice for director of the bureau. and that is who we found in richard porter.

>> the hard part was then going back and telling the people i'd hired that i wasn't going to be able to stay. but you know, sometimes you got to be the grown up. >> even before warren steps aside, some around her have an idea of what she could do next. >> i wanted barack obama to appoint her to head the agency. and i said if they don't confirm her, she can run for the senate. and he said, do you think you want to be a senator? i said yeah she wanted to be a senator. might even want your job. she's got start somewhere. >> she was untest bud proved very quickly she's in the senate race she's got that. very quickly she's in the senate race she's got that.

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♪ ♪ and everywhere i go ♪ there's always something to remind me. ♪ ♪ of another place and time. ♪ i'm going to do this. i'm going run for the united

states senate. >> in the summer of 2011, democrats are looking to oust republican scott brown who a year and a half earlier shocked the reliably blue state of ma by capturing the late ted kennedy's senate seat. democrats look to elizabeth warren. >> so suddenly democrats in massachusetts looking around and saying hey, you know, she couldn't get confirmed maybe that run the cfpb but i think she'd make a good messenger in this senate race. >> warren hasn't held or even run for public office before enter she never saw herself as the politician and that is part of why i thought she'd be a terrific senator. >> reluctant at first she officially enters the race in september at 62 zblun tested but proved very quickly in that senate vase she's got that. >> warren hits her first real stumble when a controversy

emerges in april 2012. >> the boston herald had a story that raised a lot of questions about why is it that harvard had in a couple of instances listed her as a minority and a native american when there was no apparent proof that she was a native american. >> my fathers people objected to my mother because she was part cherokee and part delaware. in order to get married my mother said they had to go elope. and my brothers and i grew up with that. i know myself to be a person of native american heritage. >> she's asked why she listed herself as a minority in law school directories in the 1980s and '90s. >> i listed myself in the directory in the hopes that it might mean that i would be invited a luncheon a group, something that might happen with people who are like i am. nothing like that ever happened. that was clearly not the use for it. and so i stopped checking it off. >> so i think lot of folks looked at that and they said,

this is somebody who's image who's selling point, who's appeal is that she's genuine. and then they looked at that and they said, boy, that sounds kind of like there is a calculation there. >> everybody we talked to kind of said the same exact thing and gave us the same information that it didn't play any role the her employment. >> i never got any benefit for my native american heritage. the people who hired me have been absolutely clear on this point. that they didn't know and didn't care. >> her responses don't satisfy everyone. but warren wins the party's endorsement at the june convention. but her republican opponent scott brown raises the native american issue to attack her character in the first debate. >> claimed she was a native american. a person of color. and as you can see she's not. >> that may have back fired because a lot of people then did see it as at least somewhat

racially charged because he was talking about her appearance. >> i believed my mother and my father and aunts and uncles and i never asked anybody for any documentation. i don't know any kid who did. >> in a tight race, warren survives the controversy and emerges victorious. she defeats brown by 8 points and makes history too as the first female u.s. senator in massachusetts. >> you took on the powerful wall street banks and special interests and you let them know you want a senator who will be out there fighting for the middle class all of the time. >> and that you are well and faithfully -- >> she dives into debates on student loan debt, social security and unsurprisingly, wall street reform. >> tell me a little about the last few times you have taken the biggest financial institutions on wall street all the way to a trial.

anybody? >> i can 100% draw a line between the first that was pushing amine on the first day in law school and the person i see pushing witnesses. >> i want to ask a question about -- >> she scares the hell out of wall street. let me tell you why. she's subject matter than any wall street banker and tougher than any nfl linebacker. >> can you tell me -- >> warren may inspire fear among those she questions but her colleagues see a different side to her. >> you don't necessarily see, for example, elizabeth in a smaller room where there is not a camera just making jokes. you know she has a great sense of humor. >> whether it is behind closed doors or not in public. the truth is is that unlike a whole lot of politicians who have good talking points, elizabeth actually cares. >> she also earns a reputation for being laser focused.

often dashing through senate hall, sidestepping reporters while her aides try to keep up. >> mostly you see her walking really fast through the halls, usually carrying literature and getting ready to question somebody at a hearing. >> i believe in what the democrats fighting for. >> early on warren rises in the democratic party. still she's not afraid to go against president obama. on his policies. >> are you ready to fight? all right. no more secret trade deals. >> and his appointments. she opposes larry somers as president obama's favorite candidate to head the federal reserve in 2013. >> she saw him as part of the wall street wing of the democratic party. >> she derails the nomination of an investment banker named antonio weiss to a top division in the treasury department. >> enough is enough with wall street insiders getting key position after key position.

and the kind of croneyism that we've seen in the executive branch. >> she's accused of going too far. >> i think the criticism in the antonio weiss case was this was too strident. you were just basically saying anybody who is an investment banker is unworthy of a major position in government >> that fierceness and willingness to stands up to her own party wins support from the democratic left. early in her first term, she's getting buzz. as many look ahead to the 2016 presidential race. >> i went to a liberal gathering in detroit. there were people wearing these hats at the conference. run elizabeth run. they were screaming. they were desperate for her to run. >> coming up. >> nasty women have really had it with guys like you. >> trump is a low hanging fruit.

an easy target for elizabeth.

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run, warren, run. >> elizabeth warren is only a freshman senator when groups on the progressive heft begin a grass roots movement to draft her into the 2016 race for president. >> in terms of trying to understand the scale of it. there was a general assumption throughout politics this was a pretty narrow base of the democrat party. >> she thought hard about the possibility of running. she talked to people about it. >> are you going to run for president? >> no. i'm not running. >> it was she was a senator for just a few years. that would have been the over reach and bumptiousness that would have led people to -- resent her. >> even though she doesn't run. she goes on the offensive. she and donald trump engage in a

public feud. >> massachusetts is represented by -- poke pock poke poc >> nasty women have really had it with guys like you. >> it's clear she's going to fight for the party by going after donald trump. >> when the campaign ends the insults don't. >> you were here long before any of us were here. although we have a representative in congress who they say was here a long time ago. >> now we have a president. who can't make it through a ceremony. honoring native american war heros without reducing native history. native culture. native people. to be the butt of a joke. >> when confronted about calls for her to settle the issues of her heritage by taking a dna test. she dismisses the suggestion. >> what's wrong with knowing? >> i do know.

i know who i am. never used it for anything. never got a benefit from it anywhere. >> you wonder, is this going to become similar to clintons e-mails? an issue that keeps coming up over and over again. republicans will bring it up. you have warn and trump in 2020. magnify 2016. >> now the president likes to call my mom a liar. what do the facts say? >> they suggest you have an nati native american ancestry. >> confirming the results show that it's a small percentage.

>> is this enough native american to push back i guess on the president's mocking of warren? weird question to ask. i'm asking it. >> despite the mixed reaction surrounding the dna test. she's a major player in the democratic party. and up for reelection in the senate in 2018. while republicans in the state are gearing up to defeat here. warren keeps her national profile in play. donating $5,000 from her campaign account to every state democratic party. >> i believe that we need to build the infrastructure in the democratic party in every single state in the country. >> warren is also on a mission to fight efforts to weaken doth financial bill she fought for before she was a senator. >> let's make it easier for big banks to cheat american

families. >> her most personal fight. continues to be over the future of the agency she helped create. >> this is what drove elizabeth warren into the political arena in the first place. she cares deeply about the bureau. >> the bureau is currently run by acting director. a long time critic of the agency. >> i'm sure i'm not the devil. all the stuff you have read about me. i encourage you to take with a grain of salt. except me keeping elizabeth warren up at night. she sends me one letter a week. complaining about something i'm doing. >> warren who is publicly sparred with him. blasting during an appearance before the senate banking committee. >> in 2012 you voted in favor of republican budget. that called for eliminating the agency entirely. is that right? >> i don't have a specific recollection.

that sounds familiar. >> the war of words heats up. as the committee continues. >> you have taken obvious joy in talking about how it will help banks more than consumers. and how upset it must make me. here's what you don't get. this isn't about me. >> as long as the cfpb is in business. she will be outspoken. >> we're here to fight for the bureau. the consumer protection bureau. >> this is her legacy. she thought it up and dreamed it up. and there she -- she birthed it. and it's under ferocious attack. >> the bureau has been weakened. it's a cause she can continue to campon in the senate. champion in the senate. she wins a reelection in 2018 in a landslide. can she win the biggest political fight of all?

>> raise our voices. that's how we make real change. >> what this life is about the chance to get in there and use every tool we can. to help make this a government. that truly is once again a government that works not just for a thin slice at the top. a government that works for all its people. welcome michelle obama. michelle obama has returned to the spotlight. >> when she lifts her voice, people listen. >> from her humble roots in chicago. >> michelle is south side to the core. >> all things are possible. >> her journey to the white house embodied the american dream. >> if you can dream with me then you know there's no other choice other than barack obama.