Geoff Diehl (Sort-of) Crashes Elizabeth Warren’s Public Radio Appearance

By Evan Lips | January 4, 2018, 14:13 EST

Whitman State Rep. Geoff Diehl at his U.S. Senate campaign kickoff August 1, 2017. (Evan Lips — NewBostonPost)

An opportunistic Geoff Diehl took to Twitter on Thursday to prompt U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who devoted a large chunk of her public radio appearance bashing successful Republican-led tax reform efforts, to comment on the energy provider Eversource’s announcement that the corporate tax rate cut will mean lower rates for customers.

Warren, who fielded questions from WGBH’s Jim Braude and Margery Eagan on Thursday afternoon, called the recently passed tax package “a $1.4 trillion giveaway to the biggest corporations and billionaires in this country.”

Diehl, a Republican state representative from Whitman who is one of three GOP candidates running against Warren, tweeted at Braude and Eagan during their interview with the Cambridge Democrat:

The hosts asked Warren to address Diehl’s comment. 

“Look, I am glad when I read there are companies giving out thousand dollar bonuses, I’m in favor of all that, I want to see working families do better, you bet, but let’s keep in mind the giveaway was $1.4 trillion,” Warren said. “Working families are going to pay for it in some way. Higher taxes, insurance rates, programs we count on to make our country work. Look at the problem we have now with infrastructure. Where is that money going to come from? We need to make investments, we need to make them here in Mass with transportation infrastructure.”

Added Warren:

“Yes, I am very glad when companies pass along a little of the savings they got but I’d like to see a government that doesn’t hand it all out to the richest and most powerful and count on them to toss a few crumbs off the banquet table.”

On Wednesday, Diehl posted a video to his campaign website in which he challenges Warren to join him in pledging to serve the entire six-year term should she win reelection in November, a jab at recent reports suggesting Warren is angling for a 2020 White House run. 

Warren’s WGBH interview began on a light note, with Massachusetts’s senior senator noting, “Here I am bundled up in my bunny slippers and looking out the window at this incredible snowstorm.”

From there, the conversation touched on items including the feud brewing between Warren’s nemesis, President Donald Trump, and his former adviser, Steve Bannon; the state of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau; the possibility of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s succeeding outgoing Utah GOP Senator Orrin Hatch; and even the president’s mental health. 

The interview ended on a light note, with Warren recalling her morning run to Dunkin’ Donuts.

“I get glazed donuts, split them, and put butter on the halves, and put them in the toaster oven,” Warren said. “I gotta tell you it’s heaven but only do it when it snows.”