Trump lashes out at Warren over DNA test, calls her ‘phoney!’

Trump, who refers to Warren as “Pocahontas,” seized on the conclusion in a series of tweets Tuesday.

“Pocahontas (the bad version), sometimes referred to as Elizabeth Warren, is getting slammed,” he wrote. “She took a bogus DNA test and it showed that she may be 1/1024, far less than the average American. Now Cherokee Nation denies her, “DNA test is useless.” Even they don’t want her. Phony!”

Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. said Monday that DNA tests are useless in determining tribal citizenship, which is determined by tribal nations. Hoskin accused Warren of “undermining tribal interests with her continued claims of tribal heritage.”

Warren acknowledged in a tweet Monday that DNA and family history have nothing to do with tribal affiliation or citizenship, which is determined by tribal nations. “I respect the distinction, & don’t list myself as Native in the Senate,” she said.

Others questioned Warren’s decision to raise the issue so close to an election in which her party is focused on regaining control of the U.S. House.

“Now that her claims of being of Indian heritage have turned out to be a scam and a lie, Elizabeth Warren should apologize for perpetrating this fraud against the American Public,” Trump said in another tweet that ignored the evidence of her Native American background, however small the percentage.

Trump thanked the Cherokee Nation “for revealing that Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to as Pocahontas, is a complete and total Fraud!”

Hoskin, in his statement, did not refer to Warren as a “fraud.”

Trump also claimed Tuesday that Harvard, where Warren has taught law, called her “a person of colour” (amazing con), and would not have taken her otherwise!” There is no evidence that Harvard ever publicly described her in that manner.

Charles Fried, the Harvard law professor who recruited Warren, has said any suggestion that she got her job in part because of a claim of minority status is “totally stupid, ignorant, uninformed and simply wrong.” Fried said in the past that he did not mention Warren’s Native American connection when he presented her case to the faculty because “I did not know about it.”

Trump had offered over the summer to donate $1 million to Warren’s favourite charity if a DNA test proved her Native American bloodline. On Monday, Trump first denied ever making such a promise. He later upped the ante by saying “I’ll only do it if I can test her personally.”

“That will not be something I enjoy doing either,” he added.

Warren tweeted that Trump is a “cowardly elitist” and that she “won’t sit quietly for Trump’s racism” so she took the test. She also said he makes “creepy physical threats” about women who scare him, including her.

“He’s trying to do what he always does to women who scare him: call us names, attack us personally, shrink us down to feel better about himself,” Warren said on Twitter. “It may soothe his ego – but it won’t work.”

She said she released the results “because I’ve got nothing to hide. What are YOU hiding, @realDonaldTrump?” she wrote. “Release your tax returns – or the Democratic-led House will do it for you soon enough. Tick-tock, Mr President.”

Warren was referring to the Nov. 6 election, when Democrats hope to regain control of the House, which would put them in position to examine and possibly publicly release Trump’s income tax returns.

Trump has bucked decades of precedent by refusing to release the returns.

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Associated Press writer Bob Salsberg in Boston contributed to this report.

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Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap

This story has been corrected to show that Fried’s comments were ‘in the past,’ not Monday..

Darlene Superville, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Trump lashes out at Warren over DNA test, calls her ‘phoney!’

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