🚨Crypto Showdown! John Deaton vs Elizabeth Warren Debate

To the WBZ Boston Globe, US Senate debate. John Keller alongside Victoria McGrain of the globe. Mister Deaton, you'll go first on this one.

You two take a very different view of the cryptocurrency industry. Senator Warren says she wants to build a, quote, anti crypto army to rein in what she calls cryptos, threat to financial stability, consumer protection, climate and national security. You have criticized her and federal authorities for what you claim is overly aggressive regulation of crypto.

What's the right balance? 1 minute. Well, listen, I want everyone to know, when I found bitcoin, I thought of my mom because my mom was on welfare and food stamps and she couldn't keep a bank account because she couldn't keep the minimum balance and the bank would hit her with the predatory fees and we needed that money.

And then she had to go to the check cashing stores that you see in the hood and they would charge her a fee. My mom would beg them, please can you take less so that we have the money for food? And then when I went to college and I would send her money from college, I used western union would take 15% and it made a difference.

So when bitcoin came, I was like, great. You could cut out the predatory banks and the middlemen and the moneygrams of western unions and you could help unbanked people like my mom. But the better question here is for Senator Warren.

With illegal immigration, bankrupting this state with inflation pricing, regular people out of economy, with a debt crisis where 40% of the people don't have $500 in case of an emergency, with foreign wars taking place, why did this senator wake up one day and say, with all, all that I'm going to build an anti crypto army? Because crypto is so important to her. That's a question that she needs to answer.

Thank you, senator. 1 minute. So look, I'm fine.

People want to buy and sell crypto. That's great. I just want to make sure that crypto has to follow the same rules as every bank, every stock broker, every credit union, and that is some consumer protection laws and some laws to make sure that it's not open for terrorists and drug traffickers and human traffickers in Iran.

So that's what I want. But I want to be really clear about what's really at issue here. And that is who you going to represent in Washington?

There's one candidate standing here who gets 90% of the funding to keep their campaign going from one industry, the crypto industry. One candidate who has said quite openly that his personal worth is 80% tied up in crypto. Look, people of Massachusetts know me.

You know, I fight for everybody, fight for working people. If John Deaton has a chance to go to Washington, his crypto buddies are going to want a return on their investment. He's going to be there to fight for crypto rebuttal.

Senator Warren never lets the truth get in the way. If you actually look what I did, I've upset more crypto billionaires because I did her job. She sits on the banking committee.

I exposed all this regulatory capture by former SEC chair, by the way, appointed by Donald Trump, and Bill Hinman, appointed by Donald Trump's administration. There was an IG report. I'm responsible for a lot of that, of these conflicts.

So I've upset more of the crypto billionaires than anyone. The largest crypto fund blocks me on social media. But here's the thing.

Her bill bans bitcoin self custody in America, yet she's allowing the banks to custody bitcoin. Another example that Senator Warren's policies do not help poor people. They do not help the working class.

She favors the accredited investor rule that excludes 85% of the american population. She, her policies absolutely hurt poor people. And I got in this race to give poor people an actual voice rebuttal.

So I'm just trying to understand what Mister Deaton's saying here. He's saying he has really made crypto folks Madden so mad that they came here to Massachusetts and are funding 90% of his campaign to try to take back this Senate seat, to take it away from me. I'm having a hard time putting those pieces together.

But I will say this. Look, the banks have truly failed a lot of poor people. It's part of the reason I fought so hard to get a consumer financial protection bureau in place.

It has now saved american consumers more than $15 billion that companies that cheated them had to return directly to those consumers. So I'm all in favor of more restrictions on the bank. The latest one for me has been to go after them on overdraft fees, where folks like JPMorgan Chase were making more than a billion dollars a year off.

People who were struggling making it day to day. I'm in those fights, but I think crypto ought to have to follow the same rules as everybody else. Briefly, I would like to move.

I wish she would attack securing the border the way she's focused on crypto. You know, she's so focused on crypto, she had the CEO of JP Morgan Chase available for questioning and they had financed the largest child sex trafficking operation in history with Jeffrey Epstein. And you know, Senator Warren didn't ask a single question.

She wanted to talk about crypto because she's so hyper focused. Now, I know that because I was raped as a child for a period of two years, I might be a little more sensitive to those child rape victims. But I want to ask Senator Warren, why would you not ask one question?

JPMorgan Chase settled for $290 million to these rape victims. They had to settle with the US Virgin Islands. And Senator Warren doesn't ask the question.

You want to know why? Because a former Democrat president's involved. Because her donors are involved.

Because people that she knows are involved. Again, loyalty to an agenda, loyalty to a party. I come back, I come in and I want transparency on everything.

I'd like her to answer the question on behalf of all those rape victims, though. So look, I have stayed after the banks. I have stayed after the regulators that regulate the banks.

I have done everything I humanly can to try to get more fairness into our financial system. What I don't hear Mister Deaton talking about is what is the return on investment that his crypto investors are expecting from having put millions of dollars into his race. Look, I'm all for having a crypto system.

If people want to buy and sell crypto, all I want are just some basic fair rules. The same kind of fair rules that should apply to all of our financial institutions. I do want to move on, but she asked a question of you to go ahead.

Absolutely. Listen, I can't help. I can't help.

Let me finish. Please, let me finish. I can't help it when she goes to ban an entire industry that they're motivated against her because they see a viable candidate.

But listen, the rules are already there. Senator Warren, you noticed she didn't answer the question about those rape victims. You know, you can't call yourself an absolute warrior for women if you only select the women you're willing to protect.

You know, I really don't understand this charge and I don't know what you're talking about here. I have pushed on the banks and tried to get more regulation over the banks and tried to hold the banks accountable every single time they step out of line. Now, I get it.

They're big and they're powerful. Of course I don't take my money from the banking industry. I take my money from the people who want to support this campaign.

What I don't hear you talking about is what exactly do the crypto folks expect to get by funding 90%. You want to know something everyone out there? I sued the government because the SEC had done something really bad to small retail investors.

And a lifelong democratic judge agreed with me. I did it all pro bono. And this token XRP was called legal because of my work.

I won lawyer of the year, consumer advocate of the year, defender of Freedom award because I did it for free. And guess what? Last week that crypto billionaire that she's talking about that has supported me just donated millions of this XRP token to Vice President Harris campaign.

If I didn't do what I did sue the SEC on behalf of small retail investors, that donation to your candidate of choice center would not have happened. So Madam Vice President, if you're watching you're welcome. I would like to move on.

You can return to this if you like later. Victoria McGreen has our next question. We'll go to you first again Mister Deaton.

To make up for the four turning our attention to the rest of the world. You've suggested that senator.