White House: ‘Pocahontas’ remark isn’t slur
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House said President Donald Trump wasn’t making a racial slur when he referred to Senator Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas” while speaking with Navajo military veterans who served as code-talkers in World War II.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Monday that Trump had an “extreme amount of value and respect” for the World War II veterans, and “I think what most people find offensive is Senator Warren lying about her heritage to advance her career.”
During a meeting with Native American World War II veterans, Trump said there was a “Pocahontas” in the US Congress, in an apparent derogatory reference to Warren, a senator from Massachusetts.
After listening to one veteran speak at length about his experience as a “Navajo code talker” during the war, Trump heaped praise on the veterans and said he would not give prepared remarks himself.
“You were here long before any of us were here,” Trump said. “Although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas.”
Trump repeatedly referred to Warren as “Pocahontas,” the name of a famous 17th-century Native American, during his presidential campaign in a mocking reference to Warren’s having said in the past that she had Native American ancestry.
Warren, one of the Senate’s most prominent liberal Democrats, is a noted legal scholar who taught at Harvard Law School and served as an adviser to former President Barack Obama before she was elected to the Senate in 2012.
Before entering politics, Warren helped Congress develop the Consumer Financial Protection Board (CFPB), which was established to protect Americans from abusive lending practices following the 2008 financial crisis.
The CFPB has been under attack by Trump since he took office in January. On Friday, Trump named his budget director as the interim head of the agency, after the agency’s outgoing chief named someone else to the job, setting up a court battle.