Five times Elizabeth Warren was less than truthful: From father's past as a janitor to Native American ancestry
Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently grabbed headlines when she was caught on a stage mic confronting 2020 rival Sen. Bernie Sanders for calling her a "liar" on national television.
While her argument might bear weight, is the Massachusetts senator too insecure to tell the truth about her own life?
Warren has often been accused of building her campaign on a foundation of misrepresentations and exaggerations. By now, it is common knowledge that she identified as Native American despite having 0.1% Native American ancestry and zero experience of tribal life. Warren's unfounded claims made her an easy target for President Donald Trump, who went on to mock her with a disparaging nickname: "Pocahontas."
But it doesn't stop there. The senator also fibbed when she promised her constituents in Massachusetts she would serve her full Senate term if reelected in 2018, as her 2020 presidential run commenced just a few weeks after she won that election.
Another blatant lie floated by the 2020 presidential hopeful is that her children attended public schools. This is a half-truth, as she conveniently omitted the fact that her kids also attended private schools. Many have attributed her misdirection to the fact that she's campaigning against school choice programs -- which would grant disadvantaged children opportunities to pursue private education that her kids enjoyed.
Warren has often been criticized for her pattern of misleading the American populace, which might be perceived by some as normal in the Trumpian era. The senator appeared to dupe blue-collar voters in an appeal to middle-class solidarity despite being a multimillionaire herself. After she claimed on the campaign trail that her father was once a janitor, Warren's brother furiously responded to the Boston Globe saying he was tired of her repeatedly making such false claims.
“My dad was never a janitor," David Herring categorically told the paper.
Most recently, Warren attacked South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg over a fundraiser he held at a "wine cave," but her comments sparked a backlash owing to her own history of throwing luxurious campaign events. In October 2017, Warren held a luncheon for Senate campaign supporters at Boulevard in San Francisco -- a restaurant that boasts a "wine vault" with bottles priced at up to $3,800 a pop.
Then, in June 2018, Warren organized another fundraiser at City Winery Boston, where donors who shelled out $1,000 to Warren's Senate campaign received souvenir wine bottles, and VIP experiences were offered to those who gave $2,700.
Maybe Warren misleads the public so often because someone as intelligent as her knows that her privileged background doesn't help while railing against the rich and selling far-left policy proposals to the middle class. When faced with her lies, Warren's base will likely point to Trump's long-documented record of being casually unconcerned with the truth. But "whataboutism" barely counts as a defense of the Massachusetts senator, especially if she's looking to derail the Trump train.