When U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer suggested Wednesday that someone should "find a way to neuter" U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, the Missouri congressman didn't mean what some people think he meant, his spokeswoman said Friday.
Kristina Weger, Luetkemeyer's communications director, told the News Tribune in an email: "It's no secret that Congressman Luetkemeyer is a vocal opponent of Dodd-Frank," a 2010 federal financial regulations law aimed at reforming Wall Street and providing more consumer protections.
Weger said the law "is damaging our economy, codified too big to fail, and did nothing to solve the underlying problems that caused the 2008 financial crisis. Sen. Warren has gone to great lengths to protect this failed law in its entirety, even opposing common-sense changes supported by members of both parties."
Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, is a former Missouri bank examiner, and he's worked in the banking and insurance industries.
Relatives own and help operate the Bank of St. Elizabeth.
Weger said Luetkemeyer's comments during a Wednesday panel discussion at an American Bankers Association conference in Washington, D.C., "were in reference to the need to neutralize her influence on these important issues so that Congress can make needed changes to this law in order to strengthen our economy and move our country forward."
Luetkemeyer also called Warren "the Darth Vader of the financial services world" during the bankers meeting.
His comments first were reported Thursday by Politico, a national website that covers politics. Its "Morning Money" section sponsored the panel discussion.
Politico also reported another panel member, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colorado, said, "(Luetkemeyer's) comments about Elizabeth Warren using the words, "neuter' and "Darth Vader,' are very misplaced because she speaks for a lot of people."
Weger said Friday: "Any other characterizations of the congressman's comments are inaccurate."
On her personal blog, Warren on Thursday reacted to the "neuter" comment: "Why would he go out of his way to say something so sexist and offensive? Is he hostile to all women? Clueless? Afraid? And then I had a second thought: This is all about money.
"Congressman Luetkemeyer was on a panel about the "changing political landscape' in a room full of Wall Street bankers - powerful people who have been working for years to roll back financial reform. Trying to land the best zinger with my name is just one more way to earn chits and try to cash in big time with that audience."
In the blog post, Warren called Luetkemeyer "a Wall Street yes-man, and the financial industry has rewarded him handsomely for his reliability. Since first running for Congress in 2008, he's received nearly a million dollars from the big banks, hedge funds and credit card companies - and he's taken $50,000 specifically from the American Bankers Association."
She speculated Luetkemeyer "probably thinks that he'll make big bucks from his Wall Street friends off of his sexist remarks," then urged people reading her blog to "chip in whatever you can afford right now" in an effort to "match the $50,000 that the American Bankers Association has given Blaine Luetkemeyer."
Neither Warren's nor Luetkemeyer's offices responded to requests Friday for further comment.
In her blog post, Warren pledged: "No amount of offensive remarks will stop me from standing up to House Republicans who are bought and paid for by the big banks.
"And no amount of name-calling will keep me from fighting for Wall Street reform, for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and for real accountability when the big banks break the law."
Weger said Luetkemeyer is just as adamant: "He will continue to represent the views of the 3rd District of Missouri, and they are overwhelmingly supportive of his position to repeal Dodd-Frank."