Trump Mocks Warren, but Critics Fault His Reference

He ridicules the 2020 candidate with a reference to the massacre at Wounded Knee
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 14, 2019 7:24 AM CST
Updated Jan 14, 2019 7:46 AM CST
Trump's New Criticism of Warren Is Criticized Itself
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during an organizing event at Manchester Community College in Manchester, N.H., Saturday, Jan.12, 2019.   (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Jeff Bezos wasn't the only target of President Trump's scorn on Twitter on Sunday night: Trump also mocked 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren over an Instagram Live video. Trump tweeted a link to a snippet of the video, writing, "If Elizabeth Warren, often referred to by me as Pocahontas, did this commercial from Bighorn or Wounded Knee instead of her kitchen, with her husband dressed in full Indian garb, it would have been a smash!" Trump has long accused Warren of exaggerating her Native American ancestry, but the president is taking flak himself for the casual reference to a massacre of Native Americans. As the Hill notes, Wounded Knee is a symbol of the brutal treatment of Native Americans in the 19th century, given that the US Calvary shot and killed scores of men, women, and children at the camp of that name in South Dakota.

Congress formally apologized in 1990 for the massacre, with estimates of the number of deaths ranging from about 150 to 400. The Washington Post collects reaction, including from Native American writer Ruth Hopkins, who tweeted: "+300 of my people were massacred at Wounded Knee. Most were women and children. This isn’t funny, it’s cold, callous, and just plain racist." The Boston Globe notes that Warren's video, in which she drinks a beer and introduces her husband, has been mocked by critics online for other reasons. But Jaclyn Reiss writes that Trump's jab seems to be his "most pointed—and cringe-worthy—" attack yet on Warren. (Earlier this year, Warren released the results of a DNA test showing that she does have Native American ancestry, though perhaps not too much: An expert said she's somewhere between 1/64th and 1/1,024th Native American.)

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