California Rep. and Democratic Senate candidate Loretta Sanchez said recently she’s “proudly” American Indian on her mother’s side, but declined to back up the claim when questioned repeatedly by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Sanchez got in trouble for tapping her mouth and whooping in reference to Native Americans, while speaking to a group of Indian Americans on the campaign trail Saturday. Her initial attempts to brush off critics who found the “war cry” offensive failed, and she apologized Sunday, saying she’s only human.
“[Native Americans] know that I have always had their backs,” she said in her first major speech as a candidate for retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer’s seat. “And they know what many of you don’t know. Like so many Mexican Americans, I am proudly part Native American – on my mother’s side.”
Asked to substantiate her claim, Sanchez’s office directed TheDCNF to a campaign adviser who did not respond to multiple requests for some kind of evidence.
Sanchez made the gesture while speaking to an Indian American caucus in what the Los Angeles Times charitably described as a “playful and uncensored manner” that is “a refreshing trait in an era when politicians keep constant guard against smartphone-captured gaffes.”
She was joking about meeting with a supporter who she thought was American Indian when she made the gesture. “So I’m going to his office thinking that I’m gonna be with [whoops and taps her mouth] right?” she said, referring to the Indian American supporter. “‘Cause he said Indian American … ”
WATCH:
Democratic Senator and progressive-obsessed Elizabeth Warren got into trouble when it was revealed in 2012 she had identified as Native American while applying to teach at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Harvard Law school.
Her campaign scrambled to produce documents substantiating her claim, and Warren later said she knows she’s part Indian because a female relative told her that her “pawpaw” had “high cheek bones like all the Indians do,” and “your mother got those same great cheekbones.” (RELATED: Warren Whines About Fake Indian Coverage)
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