OBAMA IN VIDEO: ‘You Don’t Want To Mess With Mary Jo’; President Announces Nomination Of Mary Jo White To Lead SEC

UPDATED 5:56 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) President Obama formally introduced Mary Jo White to the American people today. White, 65, is Obama’s choice to lead the SEC.

“You don’t want to mess with Mary Jo,” Obama said.

White is the first woman ever appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Today marked another first for her: She is the first woman ever to have led a U.S. Attorney’s Office to be nominated to lead the SEC. White, now in private practice as a defense lawyer, has led prosecutions of Mafia figures, terrorists and financial criminals.

The nomination may signal that the President views the SEC as an increasingly important agency in the context of national security, in addition to its traditional role of policing Wall Street and the securities markets.

Obama also renominated former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Cordray, 53, has been leading the bureau for a year under a recess appointment. Obama today called for an up-or-down vote by the Senate, which has been squabbling over the upstart bureau.