Should Trump stop calling Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas” and start calling her “Rachel Dolezal”?
Breakfast Club interviewer to Elizabeth Warren: “You’re kind of like the original Rachel Dolezal, a little bit. Rachel Dolezal was a white woman pretending to be black.”
Elizabeth Warren has been trying to escape her Native American deception since 2012.
She has tried almost everything, including the disastrous DNA test.
At every turn, Warren tries to change the subject. In many ways, her new campaign strategy of rolling out flamboyant policy pronouncements every few days to keep her in the news was a reaction to how her false claim to be Native American dominated and damaged her campaign and public persona.
I’ve argued repeatedly in the past months, that Warren would not be able to escape her Native American problem, because it’s baked into the public perception of her. It’s on everyone’s mind, even when not talking about it.
It is precisely the inability to escape the issue that has so many Democrats, including people who otherwise would support her, worried that she is incapable of beating Trump in a general election — Warren’s Native American problem is like Hillary’s email problem:
… I have liked Elizabeth Warren for a long time, but this is a massive political liability. She is wrong on this, she doesn’t seem to know she is wrong, she refuses to apologize, and she continues to make it worse. I don’t know why, instead of suggesting that this is a baseless smear, she can’t just say clearly and definitively that she shouldn’t have spent years publicly touting her Native ancestry. This stupid issue would dominate any contest with Donald Trump. It would never end. It would prevent us from ever actually discussing any serious issues. It would be like the goddamn email scandal all over again. And Warren has shown that she would handle it badly. At this point, I do not see how she can be a serious presidential contender.
The best evidence that Warren’s Native American problem has not gone away was her appearance yesterday on The Breakfast Club radio program in New York City. I’m not familiar with the program, but Vice News describes it as “a must for 2020 Dems” and “where you’ll find basically EVERY high-powered Democrat who wants to reach black people.”
This should have been a friendly forum for her, which is why she went on it. Warren is a control freak when it comes to her media appearances, and she must have been expecting softball questions and a chance to rattle off her proposals.
But what Warren got, instead, was probably the best interrogation of her yet in any media appearance regarding her claim to be Native American. And even more devastating, one of the hosts, who goes by the name Charlamagne Tha God, compared Warren to racial hoaxster Rachel Dolezal.
Yahoo News reports:
During a Friday interview on “The Breakfast Club” radio show, Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren was grilled about her past claims of Native American ancestry.
Co-host Charlamagne Tha God asked Warren how she was told that she had Native American blood.
“I grew up in Oklahoma. I learned about my family the same way most people learn about their family, from my momma and my daddy and my aunts and my uncles, and it’s what I believed. But I’m not a person of color. I’m not a citizen of a tribe, and I shouldn’t have done it.”
Warren added that she couldn’t go back and correct her mistake.
Up to that point, it was standard interview material, and a typical Warren dodge, but then things got interesteing, as Yahoo News noted (emphasis added):
Later in Friday’s interview, Warren was asked to clarify the timeline regarding her claims.
“How long did you hold on to that, because there were some reports that said you were Native American on your Texas bar license and that you said you were Native American on some documents when you were a professor at Harvard?” Charlamagne Tha God asked. “Like, why’d you do that?”
“So, it’s what I believed. You know, that’s like I said, it’s what I learned from my family,” Warren responded.
“When did you find out that you weren’t?” the host pressed.
“Well, it’s — I’m not a person of color. I’m not a citizen of a tribe, and tribal citizenship is an important distinction and not something I am,” Warren replied.
“Were there any benefits to that?” Charlamagne Tha God asked.
“No, the Boston Globe did a full investigation,” Warren answered. “It never affected, nothing about my family every affected any job I ever got.”
“You’re kind of like the original Rachel Dolezal, a little bit. Rachel Dolezal was a white woman pretending to be black,” Charlamagne Tha God said.
“No, this is what I learned from my family.”
You can watch the full interview here.
Warren never answered that key question as to when she found out she wasn’t Native American, and her dodge about simply taking what her family supposedly told her without question also doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
Much of her supposed “family lore” has been called into question, and she never claimed to be Native American until she was in her mid-30s and climbing the law school professor ladder. The Boston Globe article did not settle the question of whether she benefited, but it’s beyond serious dispute that she tried to benefit.
Warren also robotically repeats “I’m not a person of color, I’m not a citizen of a tribe.” This typical of what we’ve seen from Warren since 2012, he campaign comes up with certain soundbites, and she repeats them endlessly.
None of that background seemed to matter, as media coverage and social media seized on the Rachel Dolezal comparison, with “Rachel Dolezal” trending on Twitter for the first time in many years.
Media has been indulging Warren's"deep grasp of policy ideas" for two weeks now in hopes of bumping her up into the top tier of candidates and it took less than two hours for "Rachel Dolezal" to trend on twitter.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 31, 2019
Charlamagne is such a good interviewer because he gets politics but also understands culture and how normals process this stuff — and he realizes that Warren’s Native-American history isn’t a settled issue for casual observers of the campaign. It’s a factor, like it or not.
— Peter Hamby (@PeterHamby) May 31, 2019
Watched the full, nearly hourlong interview. It was overwhelmingly positive – Warren got to dig into a lot of policy, and the hosts were really into her “we’ve got a plan for that” theme. But the Native American exchange will be what folks clip and share. https://t.co/qmSzlMCeob
— Rebecca Buck (@RebeccaBuck) May 31, 2019
Warren has inched up in the polls due to her dramatic policy pronouncements which keep her in the news cycle. She gets tons of free media, which is critical given the two dozen candidates running. She’s now at the top of the second tier of candidates, pretty much tied with Kamala Harris, and a little ahead of Mayor Pete in national polling. In early state polling, she’s not doing as well.
When Trump calls Warren “Pocahontas” he gives her and her supporters a chance to divert attention from Warren’s ethnic deception by claiming the term is racist and mocks Native Americans. In fact, Trump is mocking Warren’s false claim to be Native American, but nonetheless, Warren gets to focus on the word rather than what she did.
Perhaps Trump needs to rework his branding of Warren from “Pochahontas” to “Rachel Dolezal.” If the shoe fits. And it does.
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Comments
No. She invited ridicule. If she can’t stand the heat, too damn bad. There’s no law protecting you from your own stupidity.
Exactly right. I hope Fauxcahontas is chiseled onto her grave. It has been the silver bullet that ended her political career. Rachel Donezal may be a similar example of cultural/ethnic appropriation but a poor replacement label.
Because I wasn’t sure who Rachel Dolezal is, I Duckduckgo’d her and the first three listings on the top of the page were about Elizabeth Warren, complete with pictures.
She’s doomed as a viable candidate.
I think you’re mistaking Trump’s strategy. His strategy appears to be to say something that the media thinks is damning but that regular people think, yeah, what about that? This causes the media to give him coverage, thinking they’re hurting him when they’re really helping him. If true, having the media think he’s being racist when he isn’t is the actual strategy.
Changing his branding to something the media wants to hide anyway (Rachel Dolezal) and that they don’t think would harm him, would mean his truths about the hypocrisy of the Democrats would not get reported on, certainly not heavily.
Lol, read about this on yahoo earlier and was hoping that the prof would write a post about it. I was not disappointed. Who knew “Tha god” could come up with something that smart!
Someone who loves her should pull her to the side and tell her that she has no chance and to have another beer. LOL
I don’t think Trump should call her Rachel Dolezal. Stick with Pocahontas.
Actually she’s not at all like Rachel Dolezal. Dolezal is a white transracial woman, transitioning and seeking to live the life and identity of a black woman, seemingly delusionally. Mental health issues are apparent. Meanwhile, Warren’s “indianess” begins and ends with her having claimed it for affirmative action purposes.
Well said. You put my negative feelings about calling her Rachel Dolezal into words. Rachel is to be pitied, Elizabeth is to be ignored!
Harvard put up ms Indian princess as a testament to their diversity
It’s why she got hired, to say she never gained anything from it is also delusional
Mental Health is doing poorly on the democratic side
And when trump gives a name like little Rubio or Pocahontas, we love it, because he hits right where it hurts, cuts to the chase.
And although Rubio is small in stature, I always felt it meant more as to how weak in character he was
When Trump calls Warren “Pocahontas” he gives her and her supporters a chance to divert attention from Warren’s ethnic deception by claiming the term is racist and mocks Native Americans.
Well then, it’s a good thing DJT’s such an idiot. Otherwise a guy with his communication & PR skills would be dangerous—he might end up President, or something.
Lizzy should drop out now. She has ZERO chance of beating DJT next year. GO TRUMP!!
What’s sitting right in front of Warren there? I can’t make out the label in the photo. Could it be a nice steaming cup of covfefe?
Point of order, and with all due respect, Prof Jake, President Trump refers to Senator Warren as “Fauxcahontas.”
You’re welcome.
Then again, upon further review, President Trump does both.
So, whichever it is, keep it up, Mister President.
Perhaps Trump needs to rework his branding of Warren from “Pochahontas” to “Rachel Dolezal.” If the shoe fits. And it does.
Of course it fits, WAJ, but Rachel Who?
I salute, seriously, your faith in the American electorate.
My faith? Not so much.
She will always be little Lying Fauxahontas to me.
I don’t see a need to change; most everybody in America knows by know who President Trump and others are referring.
Besides, using Rachel Dolezal may encourage her to run for office, presuming that she is not in jail for fraud having stolen Welfare Money and can.
He could call her nothing and just roll his eyes or snicker whenever her name gets mentioned. But, if he must speak of her, Pocahontas of Fauxcahontas or other of her character names is more reasonable than Rachel’s dementia.
Albeit, Rachel does make a pretty good looking black chick.
Fauxcahontas gets the most bang in by book – even at the small town level, people get the issue of claiming Native American heritage to get preferential treatment. Out where I am, meeting the geneoloy requirements for being a card carrying member of a Tribe is still a big deal.