Elizabeth Warren to Draw Sharp Contrasts With Rivals in New Hampshire Speech

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who has ramped up her criticism of her presidential opponents after months of avoiding conflict, will issue another rebuke Thursday in New Hampshire, taking thinly veiled shots at former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., and calling out former New York City mayor Michael R. Bloomberg by name.

In excerpts from the speech released by the campaign ahead of delivery, Ms. Warren called unnamed rivals “naïve” for their willingness to believe that they can produce meaningful change without directly challenging the wealthy and powerful. She also criticized Democrats for limited political thinking that often bows to Republican whims.

“Unlike some candidates for the Democratic nomination, I’m not betting my agenda on the naïve hope that if Democrats adopt Republican critiques of progressive policies or make vague calls for unity that somehow the wealthy and well-connected will stand down,” she will say.

Ms. Warren will also use the speech to highlight the thesis of her economic message, saying, “The key question isn’t big government versus small government — it’s who government works for.” She will pitch her plan to upend markets through government regulation as both good politics and policy, a way to build “a grass-roots movement of Democrats, Independents and Republicans” and “produce an economy with more growth, more opportunity and more freedom.”

In a remark apparently directed at Mr. Biden, who has said he believes Republicans in Congress will work with his administration if he is elected president, she is set to say: “Unlike some candidates for the Democratic nomination, I’m not counting on Republican politicians having an epiphany and suddenly supporting the kinds of tax increases on the rich or big business accountability they have opposed under Democratic presidents for a generation.”

She will also draw distinctions with Mr. Buttigieg, whom she has traded attacks with in recent days, particularly on the issue of financial transparency. Ms. Warren and Mr. Buttigieg are considered the front-runners for the all-important Iowa caucuses in February, and are competing nationally for an overlapping set of college-educated liberals.

Without saying his name, Ms. Warren will note that Mr. Buttigieg “calls the people who raise a quarter-million dollars for him his ‘National Investors Circle,’ and he offers them regular phone calls and special access. When a candidate brags about how beholden he feels to a group of wealthy investors, our democracy is in serious trouble.”

Ms. Warren will give the speech Thursday afternoon at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics in Manchester. Hours before Ms. Warren was set to give the speech, the Biden campaign released a slew of endorsements from six current and former New Hampshire mayors, including from cities such as Portsmouth, Rochester and Dover.

The speech is another example of how, amid stalling poll numbers and a need to recapture the energy that made her this summer’s progressive candidate du jour, Ms. Warren is no longer relying on her affirmative message alone to drive supporters into her corner.

“It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of Michael Bloomberg trying to buy the Democratic presidential nomination,” she will say, continuing her trend of criticizing only Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire who recently entered the race and has already spent millions of dollars on advertising, by name.

Missing from her remarks was Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the race’s other ardent progressive. Mr. Sanders has leapfrogged Ms. Warren in some national polls in recent months and secured big endorsements from national grass-roots groups, but Ms. Warren is yet to invoke him directly.

Instead, as her campaign has done for months, Ms. Warren will seek to create soft contrasts in tone and tenor. Mr. Sanders has said billionaires should not exist, while Ms. Warren, in the New Hampshire speech, will say “a wealth tax on millionaires and billionaires isn’t about being punitive or denigrating success,” according to the excerpts.

She will also frame her pitch around another issue where she and Mr. Sanders have some daylight: Ms. Warren has offered a plan to reshape Washington rules and end lobbying.

“No other candidate has put out anything close to my sweeping plan to root out Washington corruption,” Ms. Warren will say.

“That’s our path to beat Donald Trump in 2020,” she will add. “We will beat the most corrupt president in American history by campaigning on the most aggressive anti-corruption platform since Watergate.”

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