Warren takes on Trump, says he may not be ‘free’ in 2020

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Back in Iowa as a full-fledged presidential candidate, Democrat Elizabeth Warren took aim at President Donald Trump on Sunday, saying he “may not even be a free person” by next year’s election.

The Massachusetts senator also urged fellow candidates to avoid letting Trump define the contours of the election with his personal and provocative attacks.

“Every day there is a racist tweet, a hateful tweet — something really dark and ugly,” Warren said as she opened an event in Cedar Rapids. “What are we as candidates, as activists, as the press, going to do about it? We’re going to chase after those every day?”

Warren has been a frequent Trump target. Hours after she formally kicked off her campaign Saturday, the president renewed his criticism of her past claims of Native American heritage. In a tweet, Trump called Warren “Pocahontas” and said he would see her “on the campaign TRAIL.”

The White House didn’t explain what the president was referring to in his tweet, though some Democrats accused him of making light of the Trail of Tears — the forced removal of Cherokee and several other Native American tribes from their lands in the 1830s. Warren’s campaign wouldn’t say what the senator believes Trump was referencing.

Warren emerged as one of the Democratic Party’s fiercest and most effective Trump critics during the 2016 election, campaigning vigorously for Hillary Clinton. But she’s largely avoided talking about Trump since she began testing the waters for a presidential campaign more than a month ago.

That shift made her sharp, though brief, shot at Trump on Sunday all the more notable.

“By the time we get to 2020, Donald Trump may not even be president. In fact, he may not even be a free person,” she said.