Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren isn't letting an attack ad by a Karl Rove group dampen her support for Occupy Wall Street.
"At Occupy Wall Street, protesters attack police, do drugs and trash public parks," the Crossroads GPS ad claims. "They support radical redistribution of wealth and violence, but Warren boasts, 'I created much of the intellectual foundation for what they do. ... I support what they do.'"
WCVB's Janet Wu asked Warren Thursday if it was fair for Rove to link her so closely to the Occupy movement.
"It fair to say that I've been protesting Wall Street for years and years," Warren replied. "I'm am glad to see lots of people start to really push on this issue."
"Let's face it. Something's badly broken in America right now. We've got a middle class that has been hammered financially for a generation, and we've got a Washington that works only for those that can hire an army of lobbyists and an army of lawyers. And that means it's not working for the rest of us. So yeah, I protest that. I've been worried about that. I've been working on that for a very long time."
"So, their mission, their tactics, their philosophy, you all agree with?" Wu pressed.
"No, let's be clear: Everybody has to follow the law," Warren explained. "There's no exception on that. And more to the point, though, this is an independent, organic movement. It's its own voice. It has its own pieces. It will go in its own direction. We don't speak with a unitary voice anywhere about what needs to be changed. There are lots of people, lots of voices. Whether they've taken to the streets, whether they are sitting at home just saying, 'This doesn't work anymore.'"
She added: "We need a lot of voices saying, 'We got to have change.' Because it's clear Washington's not looking to change on their own and Wall Street is going to keep pumping money into Washington, pumping it into elections, to make sure their way is the dominant way in this country. I think that's wrong."
