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WASHINGTON — President Obama jumped into the tent with Wall Street protesters yesterday, sharing their “frustration” with a financial system he slammed for its “immoral” and “reckless” practices that brought on the economic crisis.
“I think it expresses the frustrations that the American people feel,” Obama said at a fiery White House press conference yesterday, when asked about the Occupy Wall Street protests that started in lower Manhattan a few weeks ago and spread to other cities.
“We had the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression … and yet you’re still seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight efforts to crack down on abusive practices that got us into this problem in the first place,” he continued.
Obama spoke as NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly revealed the protests have cost the city about $2 million in police overtime.
A large police presence is standard at the hundreds of demonstrations held in lower Manhat- tan every year, Kelly said, adding, “I think the vast majority of people protesting are peaceful . . . But there’s clearly a core group of self-styled anarchists who want to have a confrontation’’
The president’s attack on Wall Street — and support for some of the protesters’ demands — came as he tries to reignite his political base and as his union allies have joined the protest movement.
“The American people understand that not everybody’s been following the rules, that Wall Street is an example of that,” Obama said, adding, protesters “are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works.”
Obama then trained his fire on the Republicans who are competing for their party’s presidential nomination.
“You’ve got Republican presidential candidates whose main economic-policy proposal is we’ll get rid of the financial reforms that are designed to prevent the abuses that got us into this mess in the first place. That does not make sense to the American people,” he said.
Obama touted the new financial-reform law and ripped banks for using “hidden fees, deceptive practices or derivative cocktails that nobody understands.”
But he threw a bone to Wall Street after jetting to New York last month to raise campaign cash, saying, “We have to have a strong, effective financial sector in order for us to grow.”
As the president spoke, a few thousand protesters gathered in Washington’s Freedom Plaza and marched in front of the Chamber of Commerce, just across from the White House.