When President Trump called Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) “Pocahontas” yet again at a ceremony honoring Native American WII veterans, you could just hear a good majority of America let out a laugh. But not the ha-ha kind. It was an incredulous, can-you-believe-what-he-just-said chuckle-groan of sorts. (Just go with it.)
If you need a refresher, here’s the video:
Here’s the video: Trump calls Elizabeth Warren ‘Pocahontas’ while honoring Native American code talkers: “You were here long before any of us were here. Although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas.” pic.twitter.com/hjZ5MInDDf
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 27, 2017
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders quickly came to Trump’s defense under a blast of questions and allegations from reporters. She said, among other things, that “Pocahontas” is not a racial slur (even though the National Congress of American Indians and spokespeople such as the Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye have condemned the president’s use of the word).
NBC’s Kristen Welker on Trump’s ‘Pocahontas’ remark: “Why is it appropriate for the president use a racial slur in any context?”
Sanders: “I don’t believe it is appropriate for him to make a racial slur or anybody else.” (via CBS) pic.twitter.com/4Ms4YnqMhi— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 27, 2017
But GOP strategist Rick Wilson fired back on CNN last night, reports Huffington Post, essentially saying that Sanders’ job is to lie for Trump so that his mistakes aren’t so messy. She’s required, Wilson stated, to be a “serial congenital liar in defense of Donald Trump’s latest outrages.”
“I mean,” Wilson continued, “she probably has some like tiny, shriveled husk left in her soul where she realizes this is the wrong thing to do. But she does it anyway because otherwise they’ll replace her.” Woah.
Watch the full clip below:
Warren, who reportedly is open about her Cherokee roots — despite skepticism from many sources, as CNN points out — certainly wasn’t laughing. She took offense (as many deemed appropriate), telling CNN that she “really couldn’t believe it.”
“There he was in a ceremony to honor Native Americans — men who had really put it all on the line…and President Trump couldn’t even make it through a ceremony to honor these men without throwing in a racial slur,” Warren said. “He thinks that somehow he’s going to shut me up with that, and it’s just not going to happen. It didn’t work in the past, it’s not going to work in the future.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren “really couldn’t believe” President Trump’s “Pocahontas” comment https://t.co/GSd6LUVnlF pic.twitter.com/kw2K05BNXE
— CNN (@CNN) November 28, 2017