During a program entitled “Conversation with the Candidate,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) took part in a question-and-answer segment with voters who wanted to know more about her policies and her character.
A New Hampshire woman — who is white with three-year-old black twins — stood before the former academic and questioned her on the reasons she held fast to what she called her Native American heritage and wondered why she used that to take advantage of the affirmative action system.
“I struggle with your decisions earlier in your career to self-identify on state documents as Native-American,” she continued. “I feel that that disrespected the reason why we have those affirmative action categories.”
A New Hampshire voter confronts Democrat presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren for her repeated false Native American ancestry claimspic.twitter.com/80TvBBRc3E
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 19, 2019
The voter told Warren that her children had already faced racism and explained to the senator that that was the reason some government policies favored minorities.
“So how do you overcome the bridge with voters like me?” she asked. “Who like you, who like your plans, who like what you have to say, but I have concerns about your honesty.”
Warren explained it was her parents who shared that “history” with she and her brothers but admitted she should have never identified that way, considering she never had any real connection with what she thought to be her past.
“I shouldn’t have done it,” Warren responded. “I am not a person of color, I am not a citizen of a tribe.”
Turning the issue away from herself, Warren did what most politicians would do in that situation — she shifted the focus toward President Donald Trump.
“The way I see it is that we have a chance in 2020 to decide the kind of America we want to be,” the senator continued. “Donald Trump wants to turn us all against each other, we have a chance to come together and to build an America in which we take up each other’s fights and we try to make them all our own.”
Here is the response from Twitter:
Ouch! I used to really like Warren, but like this woman who asked the question, am in the camp of can no longer trust her. I used to think she was a good, strong woman of integrity. I think this ultimately sinks her. Can't believe she hasn't found a better answer/expln yet.
— Kim (@K1mibear) July 19, 2019
The thing to remember though is she launched her campaign with the DNA test that she advertised as definitive proof she was Cherokee. Can’t run from that.
— Dave Cooperman (@comicdavecooper) July 19, 2019
Pocahontas is still unrepentant and doing her dances around the questions 😂😂😂
— William Wong 王会亮 (@Firehorse77) July 19, 2019
She keeps lying that she never claimed it on government forms.
— Anti-Fascist Crusader (@antifashcrusade) July 19, 2019
Warren’s body language is telling.
— Elizabeth W. (@Elizabe12172785) July 19, 2019