Warren reveals Democratic heavyweights warned her not to say economy was 'rigged' in 2012 DNC speech

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., revealed in an interview published Monday that she was once warned by powerful Democrats not to say that the "economy is rigged" against average Americans.

Warren told New York Times Opinion editorial director David Leonhardt during his podcast, "The Opinions," that the "powers that be in the Democratic Party," which Leonhardt interpreted as the Obama White House, instructed her in 2012 not to say the system was "rigged" in a major address.

"And they say, ‘No. Take those lines out. You cannot say that this economy is rigged.’ And I said, ‘Huh? But it is.’ And they said, ‘No, you can’t say that,’" she said on the podcast.

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Former President Barack Obama, left, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. (Boston Globe/Getty)

The progressive Democrat said she wanted to make the line a central part of her speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, held just months before former President Barack Obama’s re-election and her own Senate victory.

"So I sit down, I write my speech," she said. "I go back and forth with the folks on my team on this speech, and the line I have in this speech is something like, ‘People all across this country feel like the game is rigged against them. And they’re right. It is.’ Then I talk about the things I think we should do."

She said she sent the speech to be approved by party leadership — the Obama administration at the time — adding they warned her to omit the lines.

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., questions Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on March 16, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington.  (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)

Warren said the unnamed higher-ups eventually relented and allowed her to keep the line. She added that while Democrats had a "huge tug of war" over the issue, President Donald Trump later embraced the "rigged" message and used it effectively in his campaigns.

"And the back and forth over just identifying the problem in 2012 is a huge tug of war. Now, ultimately, I got to leave it in. It was my speech, and they let me leave it in. And I’m grateful for that. But four years later, when Donald Trump ran, he talked about ‘rigged’ every day," she said.

She mentioned how Trump made this approach effective during his 2024 campaign.

"He kept saying ‘on Day 1.’ In other words, he saw the problem and he said, ‘I get it. This is painful for you.’ I mean, in his words, and he said, ‘I am making a credible claim that I am going to make your life better economically starting on the first day I got sworn in.’"

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President Donald Trump has often warned about systems being "rigged" against ordinary Americans. (Matt Rourke/AP)

Warren said the Democratic Party needs to focus on addressing Americans’ economic struggles going forward.

"People feel like the system is rigged against them," Warren said in her address in 2012. "And here's the painful part: they're right. The system is rigged. Look around. Oil companies guzzle down billions in subsidies. Billionaires pay lower tax rates than their secretaries."

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She went on to unseat Republican Sen. Scott Brown that year and has been re-elected two more times.