During a Monday night town hall event hosted by CNN’s Jake Tapper, 2020 presidential hopeful Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was asked about her “lack of presidential tact” in handling her apparently phony claims of Native American heritage.
Warren, looking uncomfortable as she responded, seemingly blamed her family for lying to her about their heritage before pivoting to health care and other issues.
“How do you respond to people who think that, regardless of the underlying facts, the way you handled the question of your Native American heritage was tone deaf and indicative of a lack of presidential tact?” asked a man attending the event.
“Well, ya know, I grew up in Oklahoma. I learned about my family from my family,” she responded. “And, um, based on that, that’s just kind of who I am, and I do the best I can with it.”
Warren added that an “investigation” concluded that nothing that her or her family ever did with regard to claims of Native ancestry ever “played any role in any job I ever got.”
The senator then looked to pivot to her constituents’ needs, namely housing, education, and health care.
“I have now done 38 town halls in Massachusetts, last year. And this is my 32nd town hall since January. And what I’ve discovered is that people care a lot about what’s happening to their lives every single day and what touches them, like housing, and education, and health care. That’s the kind of reason that I’m in this fight and I’m going to stay in this fight, and I will tell you this: I’m going to fight it from the heart every inch of the way. I’ll do my best.”
Warren had long claimed that she was Native American, citing her family’s high cheekbones and suspect family recipes gathered in a family cookbook titled “Pow Wow Chow.” But in October, the senator’s released DNA test showed that she’s as little as 1/1,024 Native American.
Warren was slammed by the Cherokee Nation in the wake of the DNA test’s published results.
“Using a DNA test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong,” read a statement from Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. ”It makes a mockery out of DNA tests and its legitimate uses while also dishonoring legitimate tribal governments and their citizens, whose ancestors are well documented and whose heritage is proven.”
President Donald Trump branded Warren with the name “Pocahontas” for the apparently false claims. “Now that her claims of being of Indian heritage have turned out to be a scam and a lie, Elizabeth Warren should apologize for perpetrating this fraud against the American Public,” he wrote in an October tweet. ”Harvard called her ‘a person of color’ (amazing con), and would not have taken her otherwise!”
And when Warren officially entered the 2020 presidential race, Trump mocked via Twitter: “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!”
As noted by The Daily Wire’s Joseph Curl, “Warren listed herself as Native American in the Association of American Law School Directory, and according to The Boston Globe, she ‘had her ethnicity changed from white to Native American at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she taught from 1987 to 1995, and at Harvard University Law School, where she was a tenured faculty member starting in 1995.’”
Moreover, it was revealed in early February that the senator filled out a form for the State Bar of Texas with the claim of “American Indian” heritage.
WATCH: