An important narrative in Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign is that she lost a teaching job early in her career because she was pregnant.
Yet that narrative has been largely-debunked by Warren’s own words in a 2007 interview, and through records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon and others.
Warren’s response has been familiar to those of us who covered her 2012 Senate campaign, when she blamed a “right-wing extremist” for bringing forward facts that disproved Warren’s claim to be Native American. (As the link indicates, it appears Warren was referring to me.)
History has shown that the facts brought forward were accurate, Warren’s claim to be Native American was false.
Fast forward to the supposed loss of a teaching job due to pregnancy. In the face of facts showing Warren’s narrative doesn’t hold up, Warren has blamed the “right-wing smear machine” for the controversy. Mainstream media has played a similar tune, focusing on the role of “conservative” websites (primarily the Washington Free Beacon) in digging out the evidence.
But the puncturing of Warren’s narrative didn’t start with anyone who remotely could be called “right-wing.” It appears to have started with Meaghan Day, a Bernie-supporting writer at the socialist Jacobin magazine.
Day criticized Warren for saying her “first career” was a “former public school teacher” when she only worked for a year. In response to pushback that Warren was fired for being pregnant, tweeted the link to the 2007 video:
Washington Post reporter Annie Linsky links to Day’s tweet as the source of the story:
In the March 2007 interview, which was posted on social media last week by a writer for the leftist Jacobin Magazine, Warren stressed that to keep teaching she would have had to do additional graduate school work because she didn’t have proper certification to stay on.
The story gained traction when liberal Mediaite covered the contradiction, and then became a national issue when the Washington Free Beacon found county records damaging to Warren. The Free Beacon also credited Day for revealing the 2007 video:
Warren’s claim about her dismissal from the Riverdale Elementary School came under scrutiny last week when the journalist Meagan Day of Jacobin magazine noted that Warren’s story appeared to have changed over the years. Day pointed to a 2007 interview Warren gave at the University of California-Berkeley in which she suggested that she left her teaching job after realizing the graduate school classes required for her to obtain a teaching certificate weren’t going to “work out for [her].”
CBS News also cited additional records contradicting Warren.
So this story of Warren changing her tune started with a Bernie-backing Socialist who writes for a Socialist magazine. Center and right-of-center media dug up more facts harmful to Warren, but this was in no way a “right-wing” hit on Warren. It’s just facts. Facts that are inconvenient to Warren.
Day defended the tweet after coming under sustained attack:
Yet Warren returned to the same form she showed in 2012, blaming the “right-wing smear machine” in a campaign email (emphasis added)
Subject: When right-wing smear campaigns try to dismiss our lived experiences, we can fight back by telling our stories.Ever since I was in second grade, I knew I wanted to be a public school teacher. And after some twists and turns, I got to live my dream.But when I was 22 and finishing my first year of teaching, I had an experience millions of women will recognize.By June I was visibly pregnant — and the principal told me the job I’d already been promised for the next year would go to someone else.This was 1971, years before Congress outlawed pregnancy discrimination — but we know it still happens in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.My story is not unique. And now, right-wing media outlets are dismissing my story — and in doing so, dismissing many similar stories of other women who have also been affected by pregnancy discrimination.We need to call out right-wing smears when we see them — including this one. As our grassroots movement continues to grow, we fully expect to see more of these far-right hit jobs. Our job is to stop them dead in their tracks….And when right-wing smear campaigns try to dismiss our lived experiences, we can fight back by telling our stories. I’m going to continue to share mine, because we need to talk about how pervasive pregnancy discrimination is, and how many women and families it continues to affect.
Warren has taken a major hit with this story. Even Morning Joe is talking about how it’s part of a pattern of Warren lying:
Don’t blame the “right-wing” — this is part of the Bernie-Warren fight that is percolating throughout social media. Warren finds it easier to attack the “right-wing” because she doesn’t want to take on Bernie Bros and Gals.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY