A key Trump administration official has claimed that left-wing Sen. Elizabeth Warren called the tune for the Biden administration’s restrictive approach to cryptocurrencies.
White House artificial intelligence and crypto czar David Sacks argued Tuesday night that Warren (D-Mass.) has a “pathological hatred” for crypto and pushed the Biden administration to suppress the nascent technology.
“This is the financial system of the future, Jesse and we have to encourage it,” Sacks told Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
“What the Biden administration was doing, and let’s face it — it wasn’t Biden — Elizabeth Warren controlled the autopen during that administration,” Sacks added.
“She, for some reason, has this pathological hatred for the crypto community. She wants to drive this community offshore. She doesn’t want it happening in the United States. That’s the wrong policy.”
Sacks later clarified to The Post that his comments were specific to crypto policy and pointed to Warren’s close ties to former Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, another critic of decentralized currency.
“Just to be clear, I was talking about the issue of crypto,” Sacks emphasized. “It won’t come as a surprise to anyone in the crypto community that Elizabeth Warren was calling the shots on crypto policy during the Biden administration.”
President Trump and his allies have repeatedly suggested that aides to former President Joe Biden used an autopen, a device to recreate his signature, on key documents such as executive orders to mask the commander in chief’s cognitive decline.
Trump has mused that some of Biden’s pardons and executive actions should be voided if an autopen was used on them. Last week, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) demanded testimony from former White House doctor Kevin O’Connor and four Biden aides to examine the use of autopen during the last administration.
Other presidents, such as Barack Obama, used autopen during their White House days, with Harry Truman widely believed to be the first president to use the modern machine.
Warren is among the foremost progressive voices on finance and has long been a crusader for aggressive market regulations.
“I believe that Democrats understand the importance of consumer protections and anti-money laundering curbs in any new financial product,” Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, told reporters earlier this year.
“All we’re looking for is a level playing field between crypto and all of the other financial systems.”
Crypto is currently subject to fewer regulations than other financial assets, such as stocks and bonds. Prominent finance gurus, such as JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, have been very skeptical of crypto, with Dimon warning lawmakers in September 2022 congressional testimony that the industry is rife with “decentralized Ponzi schemes.”
Congress is currently mulling the GENIUS Act to set up regulatory guardrails for stablecoins, a type of crypto that is pegged to certain types of assets meant to limit volatility. Warren has long been a skeptic of that bipartisan legislation.
Trump has fully embraced crypto, announcing a US strategic reserve earlier this year and launching a memecoin that has boosted his net worth.
Last week, Trump convened a dinner at his Northern Virginia golf course for the top 220 holders of his memecoin, $TRUMP.
Vice President JD Vance also spoke at a crypto event in Las Vegas on Wednesday and revealed that he owns Bitcoin.
“Consumer confidence is hitting new highs and Bitcoin confidence is hitting new highs,” added Sacks, who attended the crypto event in Las Vegas. “This was a community that a year ago, was completely under siege. They were being prosecuted.”
“They were being subjected to lawfare. They just wanted to know what the rules were. They said give us fair rules and we’ll abide by them. The Biden administration would never do that.”
