President Donald Trump welcomed news that Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has formed an exploratory committee to run for president in 2020, in a New Year’s Eve interview with the Fox News Channel.
Senator Elizabeth Warren addresses a town hall meeting in Roxbury, Massachusetts (Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images)
“Elizabeth Warren will be the first. She did very badly in proving that she was of Indian heritage. That didn’t work out too well. I think you have more than she does, and maybe I do too and I have nothing. So, we’ll see how she does, I wish her well, I hope she does well, I’d love to run against her,” Trump said in his first reaction to Warren’s announcement.
Trump was further pressed on whether he thought Warren could win the presidency, to which he quipped, “well, that I don’t know, you’d have to ask her psychiatrist.” (Related: Trump Taunts Warren’s ‘Bogus’ DNA Test Results)
Warren revealed her exploratory committee on New Year’s Eve and subsequently held a press conference in Massachusetts. The Democratic senator released a campaign video and told several reporters she will run a campaign focused on economic issues.
Every person in America should be able to work hard, play by the same set of rules, & take care of themselves & the people they love. That’s what I’m fighting for, & that’s why I’m launching an exploratory committee for president. I need you with me: https://t.co/BNl2I1m8OX pic.twitter.com/uXXtp94EvY
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) December 31, 2018
“I’m in this fight for hard-working families. And that means reducing the student loan debt burden, increasing our Social Security payments for those who depend most on it, & the overarching piece, reducing corruption in government,” she told Bloomberg News.
Warren shared the results of her DNA test, which was conducted by a Stanford researcher, with the Boston Globe in October. “The results strongly support the existence of an unadmixed Native American ancestor,” the researcher said in a summary of Warren’s ancestry findings, adding that the ancestor was likely in her genealogy “in the range of 6-10 generations ago.”
Warren’s results show that she possibly ranges from 1/64th Native American to 1/1024th Native American. Warren has long claimed to have Native American ancestry based upon familial lore even going so far as to submit recipes to a cookbook dedicated to Native American cuisine. Harvard Law School featured her as a “minority” professor in the 1990’s, based on her self-listing in a directory as a Native American.