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DEMOCRAT ELIZABETH WARREN officially kicked off her 2020 White House run with a full-throated pledge to defend working Americans, unbowed by a row over her Native American ancestry that has threatened to nip her campaign in the bud.
“This is the fight of our lives,” she told cheering supporters in gritty Lawrence, Massachusetts, against “a rigged system that props up the rich and powerful and kicks dirt on everyone else.”
“Millions of families can barely breathe,” Warren said, in a feisty speech that struck aggressively populist and unapologetically left-leaning notes. “It is not right.”
Last night, US President Donald Trump responded to the announcement in his usual fashion – through a tweet:
Today Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to by me as Pocahontas, joined the race for President. Will she run as our first Native American presidential candidate, or has she decided that after 32 years, this is not playing so well anymore? See you on the campaign TRAIL, Liz!
Donald J. Trump / Twitter
Donald J. Trump / Twitter / Twitter
The Massachusetts senator – who had announced her intention to run on New Year’s Eve – is among the highest-profile of the growing pool of Democrats hoping to unseat Trump in 2020.
The Democratic field is already the party’s most diverse ever – in gender, age and ethnic background – and one of its more progressive. It includes several well-known women lawmakers, with Senator Amy Klobuchar expected to join their numbers later today.
Warren’s past battles with Wall Street have brought her a large following, and her campaign team has drawn the grudging respect of its rivals. Hoping to ride the momentum of her Lawrence speech, she heads next to early-voting Iowa and New Hampshire, followed by five other states.
But for now it is unclear how badly damaged Warren is by the stubborn controversy over her claim to Native American roots – a claim Trump has seized upon to belittle her, mocking her as ‘Pocahontas’.
Hoping to put the controversy to rest, Warren released DNA tests in October – but this backfired when they showed her to have only negligible amounts of Native blood, dating back generations. Warren ultimately apologised to the Cherokee Nation.
The matter reared its head again this week when The Washington Post published what it said was an official 1980s document in which Warren listed her race as ‘American Indian’.
‘Exposed as a fraud’
Trump’s re-election campaign issued a dismissive statement ahead of Warren’s announcement, saying she had “been exposed as a fraud by the Native Americans she impersonated and disrespected to advance her professional career.” It said her “socialist ideas” would hurt workers.
“This is a story that she did not want in this launch,” said John Cluverius, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.
But he also cautioned that “it’s still very, very early” to speculate on “how it harms her, or doesn’t harm her.”
Lawrence, the scene of Warren’s announcement, is a former mill town where a group of women workers, including many immigrants, launched a strike in 1912 that spread across the region and came to be seen as a historic victory for women and for labour, with improved wages and working conditions.
The 69-year-old senator has made the protection of middle-class rights the central pillar of her political message.
Lawrence, once part of a bustling US textile industry, has for years fallen on hard times, with the loss of thousands of factory jobs.
But Warren showed nothing but pride in Lawrence’s pro-worker history. “I will never give up on you,” she said. “I am in this fight all the way.”
Humble origins
She called for “big, structural change” in America that would reach beyond new US leadership – though she called the Trump administration “the most corrupt in living memory.”
Warren said she would press for steeper taxes on the rich, strong anti-corruption legislation, curbs on lobbyists and a defence of the climate. She also supports universal health care.
She pointed to her own rise from humble origins – the daughter of a janitor, she started her schooling in a $50-a-semester community college and ended up teaching law at Harvard – arguing that she can help bring a revival of the American Dream.
Warren tried in her speech to appeal to a broad ethnic coalition, saying, “We must not allow those with power to weaponize hatred and bigotry to divide us.”
Cluverius says Warren will need strong Hispanic support since two popular African Americans – Democratic senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker – are also in the crowded field.
She will also need to win over female voters, which might explain the highly unusual – and somewhat risky – decision to include a story about potty-training her baby daughter.
Warren recounted her decision to go to law school when Amelia was not quite two years old, but said the only day care she could find – with five days before classes were to start – would take the child only if potty-trained.
A determined Warren accomplished the task, she told a laughing crowd, “courtesy of three bags of M&Ms.”
“Since that day, I’ve never let anyone tell me that anything is ‘too hard,’” she quipped.
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You’ve misquoted him in your headline. He capitalised the word TRAIL in order to mock the trail of tears, as he has done before in addressing Warren. That is, joking about the genocide of native Americans.
@Robert Boyle: think he’s laughing at her and her nonsense actually. She has no more reason to be personally offended by such jokes than I do about holocaust or Holodomor jokes, given I’m not Jewish or Ukrainian. If I kept insisting I was either Jewish or Ukrainian in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary then I should probably expect to be on the receiving end of holocaust or Holodomor jokes. The people making me the butt of such jokes would not really be mocking the actual victims of these atrocities, they would be mocking me and my delusions.
Jokes this simple really shouldn’t require explanation.
@Winston Smith: Every decent human being should be offended by atrocities and offended by people mocking atrocities.
The Choctaw people who suffered and died on The Trail of Tears were the ones who donated to Irish famine relief. Are you going to stand with the moron that’s mocking their ancestors’ sufferings?
@Anna Porter: context matters. People obtaining unfair professional advantages by dishonestly leveraging the suffering of your people is infinitely more offensive than someone mocking the person who dishonestly leveraged the suffering of your people for personal professional gain. Do decent people lie about their ancestry for personal gain?
@Winston Smith: Mocking and belittling people. Yep , that’s the sign of a true leader. Hasn’t trump surpassed the 8,000 lie mark at the point? Unfortunately dishonesty and lies seems to a cornerstone of the political system in the US. Not sure it’s any better here.
@Bilbo Baggins: is it wrong to mock and belittle somebody who lied about their ancestry for personal professional and financial gain? People like deserve to mocked (and criminally charged with fraud where possible) and it’s pathetic that her and supporters think they can take the moral high ground on this.
@Winston Smith: I don’t care about him having a go at Warren. They’re both politicians and such rhetoric goes with that territory. However, his mocking reference to the Trail of Tears is despicable. And he’d have been fully aware of what he was saying having previously insulted Native Americans by joking about Wounded Knee massacre. Also, ridiculous of you to castigate Warren for exaggerating her Native American heritage whilst staunchly defending that yahoo, Trump
@Winston Smith: I don’t care about him having a go at Warren. They’re both politicians and such rhetoric goes with that territory. However, his mocking reference to the Trail of Tears is despicable. And he’d have been fully aware of what he was saying having previously insulted Native Americans by joking about Wounded Knee massacre. Also, ridiculous of you to castigate Warren for exaggerating her Native American heritage whilst staunchly defending that yahoo, Trump
@Anna Porter: why is it ridiculous to castigate somebody for engaging in fraud exactly? And no matter how many times you say it it’s not directed at native Americans, it’s directed at the fraudulent woman who lied about her heritage for personal financial gain. There is literally no reason not to mock her mercilessly, she deserves everything she gets. What she did is absolutely disgraceful. It is infinitely worse than making an off colour joke. And just because you think someone is a “yahoo” doesn’t automatically make them worse than, or even as bad as, a person who wilfully engages in fraud for personal gain. There is no comparison here, she is a disgrace and beneath contempt for what she did.
@Winston Smith: You wouldn’t mind making out a list of the ‘benefits’ that Warren got for saying that she was a ‘Native American’? That would be fantastic.
@Winston Smith: Of course his insults are directed at Native Americans. Even worse, he’s pushing oil lines through their lands and taking national park lands sacred to them and opening them to corporate exploitation.
As for lying, Trump leaves Warren in the ha’penny place! Afaik Warren only exaggerated her Native American heritage whereas Trump has been shown up as a liar hundreds of times but that doesn’t seem to bother you! So, spare me your outrage Winston.
No thanks and no way American-Indian Warren
Let’s face it, she doesn’t stand a chance after the Native American debacle.
78% of Americans approved of Trump’s SOTU speech, even Democrats.
@PC Principal: talk is cheap, and it’s essentially worthless from a man who fomented the longest shutdown in US history because he couldn’t get his own way. Warren is a joke candidate regardless, the Democrats are probably going to make a balls of the next election with infighting anyway.
I’d still vote for the donald. (If i had a vote)
@Adrian: Thank Good for small mercies!
With too many people running against Trump the vote will be spilt and he will end up with a majority again.
@Marcia Craine: that’s not how presidential elections work in the US. Only one of the many will stand against Trump, so the others won’t be able to split the vote.
Well she claimed about her high cheekbones as a reason for her American Indian ancestry, yeh I say let her run for president, ya know, an let’s ignore her insane opinion on identity politics.
@Jonathan Byrne: She’ll be delighted to hear that you are letting her run for President :-)
I suppose you couldn’t get nothing more insane than saying that one would get Mexico to pay for a multi-billion dollar ‘wall’ & having ‘healthcare for everyone’
“Since that day, I’ve never let anyone tell me that anything is ‘too hard,’”
…I found that lying on job application forms about being the member of a racial minority a great way to overcome any difficulties
Maybe she should wear a yellow vest
Anyone but Trump!
Trump unknowingly being racist with his name calling.
@iohanx: So he’s not a racist, as everyone tries to make him look like one!!
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