Elizabeth Warren: 'If I'm Going to be Loud and Unwelcome, So Be It'

Sept. 17, 2010 -- Elizabeth Warren, the liberal activist tapped by President Barack Obama to help start the consumer watchdog agency she first proposed, today said she would pull no punches to stand up for middle-class Americans.

"The first thing I'm going to promise is that I'm going to be a voice in the room on behalf of middle class families and if that means I'm going to be loud or unwelcome at any point, so be it," Warren told ABC News' Diane Sawyer in an interview on "World News."

Warren, who has ruffled feathers in Washington as head of the Congressional Oversight Panel, said her sole priority is creating the new consumer protection bureau, not making friends in the nation's capital.

"I'm not looking for more jobs in Washington," she said. "What I'm looking for is to get a consumer agency up and going that levels the playing field, cuts out the tricks and traps that are going on now in credit, and really makes this economy and this government work more for middle class families."

Warren said the country's economy will not thrive as long as the financial industry preys on the middle class.

"We cannot grow and go forward on the basis of how much can we trick middle class American families," she said. "We have got to find a firmer foundation."

Warren became emotional when describing how much it means to her to be an advocate for consumers. She said her own daughter, who is now pregnant, has been having "a rough time" lately.

"They're the ones I do this for," she said. "This is what I've worked on, this is what I've studied, this is the family I come from. This system is broken now and it's crushing families all across this country. I'm just here to try and do what I can to help on behalf of those families and to think about my own little granddaughters and the upcoming little grandson to try to make things work better, a middle class that is strong and vital and hearty for them."

Earlier today the president was effusive in his praise of Warren in a speech at the White House.

"Getting this agency off the ground will be an enormously important task, a task that cannot wait," the president said. "That task is something I've asked Elizabeth Warren to take on."

The president called Warren, who will be an assistant and adviser, "one of the country's fiercest advocates for the middle class."

The president's decision, first reported by ABC News' Jake Tapper, will give Warren an important role in creation of the bureau, but will avoid a confirmation fight in the Senate, a political maneuver that has upset lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle.

Warren told Sawyer that the Senate confirmation process could have dragged on for a year, but her new role will allow her to start immediately.

"He said, 'You can get to work tomorrow if you don't care much about titles.' I said, 'Mr. President, that's the job I want, let me go to work tomorrow. That's what I want to do.'"

"I don't think this is about sidestepping a fight," she said.

Republicans, however, are irate that Obama did not nominate her for a permanent position that would have required the Senate's approval.

Sen. Judd Gregg, the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, told ABC's "Top Line" that the president's decision to bypass the Senate was "a terrible adulteration of the process."

Gregg also voiced fears that Warren would pursue "a social justice agenda" in her new role at Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

"My concern is that she would use the agency for the purposes of promoting social justice versus for the purposes of promoting better credit and having a stronger financial system," he said.

Such a view was echoed by Sen. Richard Shelby, the top GOP member on the Banking Committee.

"If we don't have banks that are viable and strong, where are we going to be then. She doesn't take this into consideration," Shelby said. "I think you have to have a balance. I think you have to have someone with more objectivity. I think this is a big mistake."

But Republicans are not alone in taking issue with the White House decision to circumvent the Senate process. Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon said he hoped Obama would nominate Warren to a permanent position in charge of the consumer agency not just a special advisory role.

"She is more than deserving of the job and the Senate should have the opportunity to confirm one of the nation's strongest consumer advocates," Merkley said.

The president on Friday did not respond to questions about why he decided not to appoint Warren to a permanent position with the agency.