Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Albuquerque, N.M., Tuesday. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
BOSTON – Donald Trump waited until Wednesday morning to escalate his return fire after U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren accused him of being an “insecure moneygrubber” in a speech Tuesday night.
Goofy Senator Elizabeth Warren @elizabethforma has done less in the U.S. Senate than practically any other senator. All talk, no action!
Trump blasted Warren at about 8:30 Wednesday morning. The presumed Republican presidential nominee had had a busy night, after all, with protestors disrupting his rally in New Mexico. While describing the demonstrators as “thugs” and “criminals,” he also took aim at the state’s Republican governor along with Democrat Hillary Clinton, his likely opponent in the presidential election.
But he found time to respond to the Associated Press earlier, resurrecting a charge from Warren’s Senate campaign four years ago.
“Pocahontas is at it again,” Trump said to the news service by email, responding to a request for comment on Warren’s remarks. “She scammed the people of Massachusetts and got into institutions because she said she is Native American.”
“She’s one of the least successful Senators in the U.S. Senate,” the New York billionaire said.
Warren held fire until early Wednesday afternoon, then let loose a blistering fusillade:
The attacks came after a day of seemingly coordinated assaults by Warren, Clinton and other Democrats focusing on trump’s business record, which includes four bankruptcies, and his failure to produce copies of tax returns he has filed in previous years. A year ago as his campaign was taking shape, Trump assured reporters and commentators that he would release his returns, as has been a tradition among presidential contenders for decades.
In a speech to the Center for Popular Democracy in Washington Tuesday, Warren talked about the financial crisis and recession that followed the collapse of the U.S. housing market and how the upheaval affected working families. From there she pivoted to Trump.
“Just yesterday, it came out that Donald Trump had said back in 2007 that he was ‘excited’ for the real estate market to crash because ‘I’ve always made more money in bad markets than in good markets.’ That’s right. The rest of us were horrified by the 2008 financial crisis,” but, she said, “Donald Trump was drooling over the idea of a housing meltdown – because it meant he could buy up a bunch more property on the cheap.”
She went on to wonder aloud “what kind of a man” roots for people to lose their jobs, their homes and pensions according to a recording posted on the center’s Facebook page.
“I’ll tell you exactly what kind — a man who cares about no one but himself. A small, insecure moneygrubber who doesn’t care who gets hurt, so long as he makes some money off it,” she said. “A man who will never be president of the United States.”
Warren, who has conspicuously remained on the fence and not endorsed anyone in the Democratic presidential primaries, may be getting primed to swing behind the former first lady along with most other elected Democrats. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont social democrat, has steadfastly refused to quit his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, and the two senators draw support from the same young, progressive demographic group.
Speculation has raged for months on whether Warren may be angling for a spot on the Democratic ticket through her posturing and in her attacks on Trump, which have recurred periodically as he has gotten closer to the nomination.
The Bay State’s senior senator, Warren was first elected in 2012 after a career as a law professor, most recently at Harvard University in Cambridge. Before her Senate bid, she had helped set up the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which acts as a regulator over credit providers, among other things. In 2012, Warren acknowledged having claimed Native American heritage based on family lore. In 2012, Warren acknowledged having claimed Native American heritage based on family lore.
Trump, who has also resurrected controversies that swirled around the White House when Bill Clinton was president and Hillary was first lady, also took time to lash out at New Mexico’s Republican governor, Susan Martinez, Tuesday night. He read off a series of negative statistics about the state, including an increase in the number of people on food stamps, AP reported.
“We have to get your governor to get going,” the former reality television star said, according to AP. “She’s got to do a better job, OK?”
Trump’s criticisms stemmed from party politics, a Martinez spokesman said in response. “The governor will not be bullied into supporting a candidate until she is convinced that candidate will fight for New Mexicans, and she did not hear that today.”
Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Albuquerque, N.M., Tuesday. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) 
