Looks Like a Certain U.S. President Owes Elizabeth Warren $1 Million for the Charity of Her Choice
Sen. Elizabeth Warren released a video addressing her Native American ancestry on Monday morning that seemed to signal she’s not only planning a 2020 presidential run but is already heading off President Trump’s chief criticism about her: his accusation—often accompanied by racist cries of “Pocahontas”—that she has falsely claimed Cherokee heritage. In the video, Warren commiserates with family members (including some Republicans) in her native Oklahoma and, most notably, accepts a dare from Trump to take a DNA test. The recorded results confirm the Massachusetts Democrat indeed has Native American roots, although they are distant: According to Stanford University genetics professor and 23andMe adviser Carlos Bustamante, there is “strong evidence” Warren had a Native American relative around six to 10 generations ago.
This is relevant to Trump not only because it discredits one of his favorite rallying cries against her, but because he now, technically, owes Warren $1 million. This past July, at a Montana rally where he also skewered the #MeToo movement, President Trump vowed to donate $1 million to the charity of Warren’s choice if she took a DNA test to prove her Native American ancestry. Trump and the Fox News apparatus had seized on Warren, accusing her of using her heritage to advance her law career (a claim Harvard Law School and her colleagues also debunk in Warren’s new video).
“I’m going to get one of those little [DNA testing] kits, and in the middle of the debate, when she proclaims she’s of Indian heritage . . . ,” Trump said. “And we will say, ‘I will give you a million dollars, paid for by Trump, to your favorite charity, if you take the test and it shows you’re an Indian.’ And we’ll see what she does. I have a feeling she will say no, but we will hold it for the debates.”
In a delicious example of holding (or at least attempting to hold) Trump to account, Warren is now calling on him to pay up, tweeting, “Please send the check to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center,” a nonprofit working to protect Native women from violence. In a classic Trump move, he shrugged off the Warren news on Monday with a flippant “Who cares?” and denied ever offering the donation: “I didn’t say that,” he lied at the White House. “You better read it again.” Or better yet, watch the video evidence.
Now that Warren has delivered, will Trump? Warren may want to contact a collection agency, as Trump is notorious for promising charitable donations that he never fulfills (unless and until he’s shamed into it by media reports). As Warren tweeted today, “Tick-tock, Mr. President.”
