Warren says Trump called her 'Pocahontas' to distract from tax cuts for billionaires and corporations

(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

last updated 28 November 2017

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said President Trump "stooped to a disgusting low" on Monday when he called her "Pocahontas" during a ceremony honoring Navajo code talkers who served during World War II.

"He did this because he thinks that he can bully me and shut me up," she wrote on Facebook Monday night. "He thinks he can bully and silence anybody he wants." Warren clarified that she learned about her "family's heritage the same way everyone else does — from my parents and grandparents. I never asked for and never got any benefit from it." This isn't about her ancestry, though, Warren said, but rather Trump trying to get the spotlight away from things he doesn't want the public to see.

When Trump calls her Pocahontas, "he's happy that people are not focused on how he's trying to cut taxes for billionaires and giant corporations," Warren said. "He's happy we're not focused on how he's trying to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to let big banks and predatory lenders scam ordinary Americans out of billions of dollars." Trump wants everyone to be "distracted," she continued, "but we're not going to stop standing up for middle-class families. We're not going to stop standing up for consumers."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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