By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s release of DNA test results that she says back her claims of Native American heritage touched off an exchange of insults between President Trump and the senator.
The president’s tweets early Tuesday called the test “bogus” and Warren a “fraud,” as well as resurrecting the derisive nickname “Pocahontas.”
When she released the results Monday, the Massachusetts Democrat referred to the president’s offer in July to donate $1 million to her favorite charity if a DNA test proved her Native American bloodline.
Her test provides some evidence of a Native American in her lineage, though the ancestor probably lived six to 10 generations ago, according to the analysis.
During an appearance Monday in Georgia, the president first denied ever making such a promise, then said later that “I’ll only do it if I can test her personally.”
“That will not be something I enjoy doing either,” he added.
Warren called that comment “creepy.”
She tweeted that the president 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 responded on Twitter.
Warren tweeted that Trump is a “cowardly elitist” and she “won’t sit quietly for Trump’s racism” so she took the test.
Warren, who is seen as a potential 2020 challenger to Trump, appears to have taken a page out of his political playbook, striking back almost instantly at the president who continues to ridicule her. Trump relishes a good fight, those close to him have said, and will hit back twice as hard when he’s been attacked.
Meanwhile, an official of the Cherokee Nation — the tribe Warren claims affiliation with — said a DNA test would be “useless” in determining a person’s Native American ancestry.
“Current DNA tests do not even distinguish whether a person’s ancestors were indigenous to North or South America,” said a statement by the Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. He went on to say: “Senator Warren is undermining tribal interests with her continued claims of tribal heritage.”
In his tweets Tuesday morning, Trump seized on that statement, saying: “Even they don’t want her. Phony!”