DIEHL DODGES ON WARREN
Republican state Rep. Geoffrey G. Diehl, who is running to unseat U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, sidestepped questions yesterday about President Trump’s decision to mock his opponent by referring to her as “Pocahontas” during a ceremony honoring Navajo code talkers.
“When he makes these comments, I don’t necessarily know whether that’s appropriate or not,” Diehl said when asked about offcolor comments Trump made about Warren at the White House Monday. He did, however, criticize Warren “for trying to claim an ancestry that was never part of her background.”
But Diehl, an ardent Trump supporter, stressed he’d rather not talk about Warren’s heritage at all.
“I think there’s a lot of things that are more important in Massachusetts than comments made down in D.C.,” he said.
The Whitman rep’s comments came a day after Trump, at an event honoring Navajo code talkers who served during World War II, said, “You were here long before any of us were here. Although we have a representative in Congress who has been here a long time ... longer than you — they call her Pocahontas.”
Trump has repeatedly mocked Warren for her tenure as a minority professor at Harvard University. Warren self-identified as being of Native American heritage.
After fending off questions about Warren, Diehl also avoided questions about whether Roy Moore should bow out of the Alabama Senate race after eight women levied sexual misconduct allegations against him.
“Roy Moore’s going to make whatever decision he thinks is right, and if these allegations are untrue, then I suppose he’s deciding that, and I think the people of Alabama are also going to be making the decision about who they want as their next senator,” he said.
Diehl went on to say he thinks Warren and other Democrats should take a tougher stance with regard to U.S. Sen. Al Franken (DMinn.) who is also facing numerous sexual misconduct allegations. Many of his Senate colleagues, including Warren, have called for an ethics investigation but not his resignation.
“You’ve got to walk the walk in all aspects and say, if he’s actually done something, he should not be the senator anymore,” Diehl said.