Diehl hits Warren over DNA results
Senator ties challenger to Trump in first debate
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s controversial DNA test claiming she has Native American roots was front and center at last night’s first senatorial debate.
So, too, was her 2020 Oval Office ambition and distrust of President Trump.
“I am an open book,” Warren said as GOP rival state Rep. Geoff Diehl questioned whether she used her family lore of having Cherokee heritage to land a better job.
“I don’t care what your Native American heritage is or isn’t,” Diehl said. But listing herself as a Native American on a registry years ago was “inappropriate” and was “taking a minority hire away from somebody else.”
Warren said the DNA test does not make her “a citizen of any tribal nation.”
Diehl also hit Warren on aiming for the White House instead of working for the Bay State.
“Everybody knows you are running for president,” Diehl said. “I wonder sometimes if you know what a Massachusetts zip code is.”
Warren bristled but did circle back to criticize cuts under the Trump administration. She also later knocked Vice President Mike Pence.
“This is the most corrupt administration in living history,” Warren said of Trump.
Diehl and Warren traded jabs over tax cuts, the trade war with China, ICE, 401(k) growth, Saudi Arabia’s treatment of a journalist — and Trump.
“This is about Massachusetts, not Donald Trump,” Diehl said.
Warren quoted Diehl as saying that, if elected, he’d have Trump’s back “100 percent of the time.” The Whitman Republican said he wouldn’t be afraid to vote against the president.
“He’s just trying to do Donald Trump’s bidding,” she added.
“She doesn’t care about your house,” Diehl added, “she cares about the White House.”