I know Trump and Elizabeth Warren are fighting when traffic to Elizabeth Warren Wiki’s Elizabeth Warren Native American / Cherokee Controversy page spikes.
And it’s spiking, because Trump once again has poked Warren over her claim to be an undocumented Native American.
As before, Trump referred to Warren as “Pochahontas” — part of the branding Trump has been engaged in for over a year. I explored this branding concept in late April 2017, Trump branding of Elizabeth Warren as Fake Indian continues, expecting her to run in 2020:
Trump is branding her. And being someone who was a fake Indian is her brand. She’ll never shake it.
I haven’t see a survey doing a word association for Warren, but I would expect that for a substantial part of the voting population “fake Indian” or a similar term is the first word association for Warren. Just like “Low Energy Jeb” and “Little Marco” stuck to prior Trump opponents.
Warren’s attempt “bear hug” the “Pocahontas” term, to try to get so close to the issue that she turned a negative into a positive, is unproductive because it means people are focusing on Warren’s lack of proof she’s native American. The more people talk about it, the more the brand becomes part of the public perception of Warren.
At this point, Warren’s Native American scandal is the elephant in every room she’s in, and Trump is not going to let that go.
There’s a reason Trump has latched onto branding Warren so early and often. Trump expects Warren to be the 2020 Dem nominee (and I agree).
MassLive reports on the latest, including Warren’s attempt to deflect Trump’s attacks by raising the separation of children at the border when their parents are arrested:
In a campaign stop Thursday, President Trump again slammed Sen. Elizabeth Warren, calling her “Pocahontas” and ridiculing her claims of Native American ancestry.”I’ll give you a million dollars for your favorite charity, paid for by Trump, if you take the test and it shows you’re an Indian,” Trump told a crowd in Great Falls, Mont. “We will take that little kit, but we have to do it gently because we’re in the #MeToo generation, so we have to be very gentle, and we will very gently take that kit and we will slowly toss it.” …She responded Thursday on Twitter, alleging Trump sought to redirect national attention from migrant children separated from their families at the border.”While you obsess over my genes, your Admin is conducting DNA tests on little kids because you ripped them from their mamas & you are too incompetent to reunite them in time to meet a court order,” she wrote in a tweet, tagging the president. “Maybe you should focus on fixing the lives you’re destroying.”
I understand the optics of the demand for a DNA test, but as I’ve pointed out before, No, Elizabeth Warren cannot prove she’s Native American merely by taking a DNA test:
This demand for a DNA test has been made by one of Warren’s 2018 Senate race challengers as well as others. Joan Venocchi at The Boston Globe also made the argument, Taking a DNA test could solve at least one of Elizabeth Warren’s problems.This claim that all Warren need do is show any Native American DNA, no matter how small, reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of Warren’s claim to be Native American for employment purposes. Under clear EEOC and Harvard standards, Native American ancestry would not be sufficient to claim Native American status for employment purposes, which is what Warren did.I addressed this issue in 2012, At debate Elizabeth Warren needs to disclose if she made false federal filings….If Warren can show she truly is a descendant of the original peoples of North America via a DNA test, that’s the start, not the end. She will not have proven she was justified in claiming Native American status for employment (and career advancement) purposes. She still would have to prove the second part of the test, that she maintained cultural identification through tribal affiliation or community recognition.Regardless of DNA, Warren cannot show cultural identification. Until her recent speech, Warren never associated with Native Americans.Demanding Warren take a DNA test is politically understandable. A negative result would completely eliminate her claim to be Native American.But a positive DNA result would not retroactively justify Warren misusing Native American identification to try to advance her career.
The one question I’ve never heard anyone ask Warren in an interview is whether she or a close relative already has taken a DNA test, and what the result was. It’s important to include relatives, because Warren is smart enough not to do it herself, so she can deny that she took the test.
So, has she been asked? Has she answered?
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