U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer suggested Wednesday someone should "find a way to neuter" U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, according to Politico, a national website that covers politics.
The Thursday report also said Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, called Warren, D-Massachusetts, "the Darth Vader of the financial services world."
Warren is known as one of Congress' "most vocal advocates for Wall Street reform," the website Huffington Post said in its reporting of the Politico story.
On her own website, elizabethwarren.com/elizabeth, Warren cites a Boston Globe story calling her "... the plainspoken voice of people getting crushed by so many predatory lenders and under regulated banks."
And, she said, Time Magazine has called her a "New Sheriff of Wall Street" and twice has included her among America's 100 most influential people.
Luetkemeyer, a member of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, is a former banker and Missouri state bank examiner.
His office said in a Thursday afternoon email: "The Congressman is traveling and can't comment" on the Politico and Huffington Post stories.
Politico said he made the comments during a Wednesday panel discussion sponsored by the website's "Morning Money" section, at an American Bankers Association conference in Washington, D.C.
Politico said U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colorado, also was on the panel, and 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."
An attorney and law professor as well as a U.S. senator, Warren said on her website she's "taken on big banks and financial institutions to win historic new financial protections for middle class families."
Both Politico and Huffington Post said Warren responded to Luetkemeyer's comments during an appearance on MSNBC's "All in with Chris Hayes:" "If Wall Street and their buddies in the Republican party want to launch an assault on financial regulations and they want to say "let's roll back Dodd-Frank,' all I can say is "let's have that fight,'" she said. "I'm ready.
"You can make it with words or anything else you want, but I am not backing down."