Missouri Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer: ‘Find a way to neuter Elizabeth Warren’

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren sees herself as more of a Princess Leia than Darth Vader.

The Massachusetts Democrat said she made the Star Wars comparison Thursday in response to comments made by Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer, a Missouri Republican, suggesting Warren was the “Darth Vader of the financial services world” at an American Bankers Association conference Wednesday.

Warren said in a fundraising email she’s always seen herself “more as a Princess Leia-type,” who has never been tempted by the dark side.

Warren called Luetkemeyer “a Wall Street yes-man.”

Warren said “they can call me Darth Vader or Voldemort or the Wicked Witch of Massachusetts for all I care — but I won’t be neutered.”

She was responding to reports that Luetkemeyer suggested that they, “find a way to neuter her.”

Luetkemeyer is a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee and recently sponsored a bill to deregulate community banks. He has also led multiple congressional efforts to protect the payday loan industry, according to fortune.com.

Warren told MSNBC: “If Wall Street and their buddies in the Republican party want to launch an assault on financial regulations … all I can say is, let’s have that fight. I’m ready. I am not backing down.”

This story was originally published March 18, 2016 at 9:34 AM with the headline "Missouri Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer: ‘Find a way to neuter Elizabeth Warren’."