Around New England

Liberal Newspaper To Elizabeth Warren: ‘Spit Into A Tube’

March 7, 2018

A left-leaning newspaper in western Massachusetts is calling on U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren to resolve the is-she-or-isn’t-she dispute over whether she is part American Indian once and for all.

“So we call upon our senior senator to screw up her courage and take the spit test,” The Berkshire Eagle said in an editorial.

A test of the DNA in her saliva could help determine Warren’s ethnic makeup and whether any of it comes from indigenous peoples of North America.

“Should the test come up negative, it would be an opportunity for the senator to perform an act rarely seen among politicians:  an admission of her error and a full-throated apology to Native American tribes and anyone else offended by her spurious claim,” the newspaper said Tuesday. “By facing the truth and taking responsibility for it, she would disarm her enemies and show potential voters that she was human and capable of mistakes, just like them.”

The Eagle, which endorsed Warren in her first Senate run in 2012, added:

“Handled properly, it could become a testimonial to her integrity and truthfulness at a time when that quality is in short supply among the nation’s leadership.”

The Berkshire Eagle also endorsed Barack Obama for president in the general elections of 2008 and 2012 and Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Warren (D-Cambridge) is running for re-election in November 2018, and is widely seen as a likely presidential candidate in 2020.

Warren says she is part Cherokee, a claim disputed by genealogists. She has relied on family lore.

She doubled down on her claim during a surprise appearance February 14 before the National Congress of American Indians in Washington D.C., saying “my mother’s family was part Native American.”

Skeptics note that genealogical evidence for her claims has so far appeared lacking.

Critics of Warren have also suggested that Warren used her purported Indian lineage to get teaching jobs at two prestigious law schools.

She listed herself as Native American when she applied to the law schools of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University, both of which listed her as Native American. She has said her presumed minority status did not help her get either job, something university officials at each school have also said.

The Berkshire Eagle noted in its editorial this week that President Donald Trump often calls Warren “Pocahontas,” as a way of deriding her claims of Indian lineage.

The Eagle said clearing up the situation through a DNA test would put the issue to rest, adding:

“She has nothing to lose but her Achilles’ heel.”