Liz fires back at Trump
Says prez ‘may not even be a free person’ on election day
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren took her battle with President Trump on the road to the Hawkeye State, as the newly minted Democratic hopeful mused before a crowd of Iowans that the president “may not even be a free person” by the time the presidential election rolls around.
The Bay State’s senior senator visited Iowa, an important early primary state, on Sunday, a day after making her 2020 bid official.
“By the time we get to 2020, Donald Trump may not even be president. In fact, he may not even be a free person,” Warren told a crowd in Cedar Rapids. Trump’s campaign is under investigation by a special counsel looking into whether it colluded with Russia to get Trump elected, and federal prosecutors in New York are probing some of the president’s business dealings.
That comment came after Trump had tweeted about his frequent target of mockery Saturday evening, following Warren’s afternoon announcement in Lawrence, referring to the ongoing controversy about her claims of Native American heritage.
“Today Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to by me as Pocahontas, joined the race for President. Will she run as our first Native American presidential candidate, or has she decided that after 32 years, this is not playing so well anymore? See you on the campaign TRAIL, Liz!” Trump tweeted.
Warren had endured a rough week in the news leading up to her campaign kickoff as more documentation about her long-controversial claims of minority and Indian status — a story originally reported by the Herald in 2012 — surfaced, including a signed 1986 Texas bar registration card on which she’d written that her race was “American Indian.”
Peter Olafsen of Cresco, Iowa, called Warren’s Native American scandal an “unforced error,” but told the Herald, “It wasn’t as well-played on her part as it could have been, but I don’t find it a substantive, disqualifying thing.”
Warren said in her Cedar Rapids speech that the middle class has been hollowed out to the benefit of rich people and powerful corporations — a message that clicked with a large and enthusiastic crowd, according to Linn County Democratic Committee chairman Bret Nilles, who said Warren actually could win over moderate Trump voters.
“Trump was able to appeal to those people looking toward the future — that’s what Liz Warren is trying to communicate about,” Nilles said.