‘TIME’S UP!’ WARREN EYEING WHITE HOUSE EYEING WHITE HOUSE
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said yesterday she will take a “hard look at running for president” after the Nov. 6 election — a declaration that had her Republican Senate campaign rival calling for her to quit immediately.
“I am calling on her to drop out of the Senate and pursue her real interest,” GOP Senate candidate Geoff Diehl told the Herald.
“This is what we’ve been saying all along, that she wanted to run for president,” said Diehl, a Whitman state rep. “She’s been lying to the people of Massachusetts.”
At a town hall forum in Holyoke, Warren said the Senate Judiciary hearing on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh this week — and Christine Blasey Ford’s claims the judge sexually assaulted her when they were in high school — compelled her to announce her 2020 ambition.
“I watched as Brett Kavanaugh acted like he was entitled to that position and angry at anyone who would question him. I watched powerful men helping a powerful man make it to an even more powerful position,” she said.
“I watched that and I thought ‘time’s up. Time’s up.’ It’s time for women to go to Washington and fix our broken government and that includes a woman at the top,” she added, according to a transcript of her speech provided by the Warren campaign.
“So here’s what I promise, after November 6, I will take a hard look at running for president,” she said.
“Donald Trump is taking this country in the wrong direction. Working people have taken one punch to the gut after another. And I am worried down to my bones about what Donald Trump is doing to our democracy,” she added. “Washington was broken long before Donald Trump ever got there. But it has gotten a whole lot worse.”
Diehl said Warren is acting more like “an activist than a senator” paying more attention to national politics than local issues.
Warren sent out an email appeal yesterday for donations to help Florida U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who is locked in a tight race against Republican Gov. Rick Scott.
The GOP holds a slim 51-49 advantage in the U.S. Senate.
In the House, Republicans are on top 236-194.
Pollster John Zogby said the Kavanaugh hearings — watched by an estimated 20 million people on TV, according to the latest Nielsen
ratings — is the “ultimate wedge issue” that could decide the midterms.
He said Senate races in Nevada, Texas, Arizona and Tennessee — along with Florida — are the ones to watch.
“Warren is taking advantage of this wedge issue,” he said.
“What is playing with voters is Ford was credible — even some Fox News pundits agreed,” he said. “Score this week for the Democrats.”
Zogby added Sen. Dianne Feinstein didn’t fare as well for withholding Ford’s accusation until the last minute. President Trump yesterday also speculated whether the California Democrat is also the source of the leak.
The veteran pollster also said Republican U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake came out a winner by basically forcing the weeklong FBI probe and delay in the vote. It’s all part of an epic battle playing out for all to see — with raw emotion, political deals and damning accusations and bitter denials.
In her Oval Office trial balloon yesterday, Warren seized on the Kavanaugh issue.
“This week, I watched 11 men who were too chicken to ask a woman a single question,” she said in Holyoke, referring to the Republican senators on the committee who brought in prosecutor Rachel Mitchell to grill Ford.
It was met with loud applause.