FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump’s “Pocahontas” political jab at an event honoring Navajo Code Talkers (all times local):
4:30 p.m.
Members of Virginia tribes that count Pocahontas among their ancestors say her name shouldn’t be used for political gain.
The comments came a day after President Donald Trump referred to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas” at an event honoring Navajo war veterans. He’s used the nickname before to mock Warren’s claims that she’s of Native American heritage.
Anne Richardson, chief of the Rappahannock Tribe, says Trump has shown he knows little about Pocahontas’ role in establishing the United States. She says he shouldn’t use Pocahontas to express personal feelings about Warren.
Kent Adams of the Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe says Pocahontas is an icon and her name shouldn’t be used disparagingly.
Historians say Pocahontas is well-known as a Disney princess but less so for the sacrifices she made for her people.
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1:45 p.m.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren says President Donald Trump’s repeated references to her as “Pocahontas” will not shut her up.
On Monday, Trump again used his nickname for the Democratic senator while honoring Navajo war veterans at the White House.
Warren said Tuesday that all Trump “had to do was make it through the ceremony. But that wasn’t possible for Donald Trump. He had to throw in a racial slur.”
Warren says Trump “seems to think that that’s somehow going to shut me up.” She says: “He’s wrong.”
Trump began using the nickname to mock Warren for her claims about being part Native American. Warren says her parents told her of the Native American connection and she listed herself with that heritage in law school directories to meet others with similar backgrounds.
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9:55 a.m.
Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona is tweeting that President Donald Trump’s “politicizing” of a ceremony honoring Native American veterans was “an insult to their sacrifice.”
McCain doesn’t cite the president by name in his tweet Tuesday. He says the nation owes a debt of gratitude to the Navajo Code Talkers for helping secure victory over tyranny and oppression during World War II.
He then adds: “Politicizing these genuine American heroes is an insult to their sacrifice.”
During a White House event Monday, Trump revived past mocking comments he’s made about Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren for claims she made about being part Native American.
Trump said: “We have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas. But you know what, I like you.”
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1:05 a.m.
Families of Navajo war veterans say they’re dumbfounded that President Donald Trump took a political jab at a U.S. senator at an event honoring Navajo Code Talkers.
Trump praised the Code Talkers at the White House on Monday. He also turned to a nickname he’s often deployed for Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts: Pocahontas.
Relatives of the Code Talkers say the comment was inappropriate and distracted from the men’s work that helped the U.S. win World War II.
Pocahontas is a well-known historical figure who bridged her own Pamunkey Tribe in present-day Virginia with the British in the 1600s.
The largest organization representing American Indians says Trump wrongly turned the name into a derogatory term.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the president didn’t intend it as a racial slur.
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