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Biden secretly met with Elizabeth Warren — and that says a lot about the direction of the Democratic Party

Joe Biden Elizabeth Warren
Joe Biden Elizabeth Warren

(REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
US Sen. Elizabeth Warren, left, and Vice President Joe Biden at the dedication ceremony for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the US Senate, in Boston, March 30, 2015.

Vice President Joe Biden secretly met with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) on Saturday, CNN reports.

What's perhaps most interesting about the meeting is the conclusion that it's led everyone to draw: Now he must be serious about a presidential bid!

CNN said it was "the biggest indication yet" that Biden could be feeling out his chances.

Bloomberg called it "a sign that Biden is courting influential members of the party before announcing his intentions."

They're not wrong.

Elizabeth Warren, once an obscure academic who only became a senator in 2013, has now become something like a Democratic Party bouncer. That is, any Democrat hoping to lead the party must try to get through her first.

That could have big implications for the direction of the Democratic Party — and its attitude toward Wall Street.

After all, Warren is the populist senator who once blocked a Democrat from a top Treasury position because he used to work at an investment bank.

She helped spearhead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; she's a loud supporter of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, and, most recently, she's been calling to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act in an effort to further regulate the financial industry.

Biden would not be the only presidential hopeful seeking Warren's approval, were he to run. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has started to sound a lot more like the Massachusetts progressive, too.

Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth Warren

(REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts).

In her first major economic speech, Clinton took aim at Wall Street banks and hedge funds alike.

"We have to go beyond Dodd-Frank ... Too many of our major financial institutions are still too complex and too risky," she said, according to Mother Jones.

Many Warren supporters were disappointed that she did not choose to run for president. The "Run Warren Run" group, seeking to draft the senator to launch a campaign, officially closed its doors in June.

But if Biden, like Clinton, were to lean in Warren's direction, those supporters may yet have something to look forward to.

NOW WATCH: Here's who has the best chance of making it to the White House



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