Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday took the stage with Hillary Clinton and embraced her role as Democrats’ top-gun surrogate in the war against Republican Donald Trump, heightening expectations of an all female presidential ticket for first time in history.
The Massachusetts senator and progressive hero quickly bashed the businessman’s policies and openly mocked him, as the two women whipped the Cincinnati crowd into a frenzy
“Donald Trump says he’ll make America great again. It’s right there, stamped on the front of his goofy hat. You want to see goofy? Look at him in that hat,” she said. Mr. Trump routinely calls Ms. Warren “goofy.”
“But when Donald Trump says ’great,’ I ask, great for who, exactly?” she continued. “For millions of kids struggling to pay for an education? For millions of seniors barely surviving on Social Security? For families that don’t fly to Scotland to play golf? When Donald Trump says he’ll make America great again, he means make it greater for rich guys just like Donald Trump.”
Ms. Warren said Mr. Trump would crush the American middle class “into the dirt” if elected president and went on to criticize the businessman’s past comments about making money off of the 2008 financial crisis.
Ms. Warren and Mrs. Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, were in lock-step in their attacks on Wall Street, and their calls for debt-free college, an expansion of Social Security, major investments in infrastructure and other progressive priorities.
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Mr. Trump wasted little time firing back at the Democratic duo. The billionaire called Ms. Warren a sellout for backing Mrs. Clinton, who is seen by some progressives as the embodiment of the Wall Street and Washington establishment that Ms. Warren has built her career fighting against. He also said Monday’s event was purely designed to appeal to supporters of Sen. Bernard Sanders, some of whom remain skeptical of Mrs. Clinton but idolize Ms. Warren.
“Warren’s campaigning for Clinton stands in stark contrast to the liberal ideals she once practiced,” the Trump camp said in a statement. “This sad attempt at pandering to the Sanders wing is another example of a typical political calculation by D.C. insiders.”
During an interview on MSNBC, Mr. Trump also took aim at Ms. Warren’s questionable claims about her supposed Native American heritage.
“She made up her heritage, which I think is racist. I think she’s a racist, actually because what she did was very racist,” he said.
Mr. Trump’s quick, aggressive retorts to Ms. Warren are exactly what the Clinton campaign wants.
“I do just love to see how [Ms. Warren] gets under Donald Trump’s thin skin,” Mrs. Clinton said at the Cincinnati event. “As Elizabeth made clear, Donald Trump proves every day he’s not in it for the American people. He’s in it only for himself, and Elizabeth reminds us of that every chance she gets.”
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The Clinton-Warren appearance also is driving speculation that the senator will be chosen as Mrs. Clinton’s running mate. Ms. Warren reportedly is on Mrs. Clinton’s short list of potential vice presidential picks — a list that also includes Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, Labor Secretary Tom Perez and others.
But no other Democrat is as beloved among progressives as Ms. Warren, nor have any other Democrats been quite as harsh in their attacks on Mr. Trump. The senator has built her political career on an anti-Wall Street platform, and she argues Mr. Trump will advance the wealthy at the expense of the middle class if elected president.
Mrs. Clinton has given few indications which way she’s leaning in the vice-presidential hunt. She did, however, offer unbridled praise for Ms. Warren.
“You just saw why she is considered so terrific and so formidable — because she tells it like it is,” Mrs. Clinton said.
On the policy front, liberals say the budding Clinton-Warren alliance will help ensure Mr. Trump’s defeat in November while also moving the Democratic Party farther left on domestic issues.
“Elizabeth Warren campaigning with Hillary Clinton today is symbolic of a Democratic Party that is increasingly united around big, bold, progressive ideas like debt-free college, breaking up Too Big To Fail banks, and expanding Social Security benefits instead of cutting them,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the liberal advocacy group the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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