Elizabeth Warren makes the tough call on... ditching Columbus Day

Elizabeth Warren left Iowa and headed directly to New Hampshire to try poaching some of Bernie Sanders’ supporters this week. As one would expect with a presidential candidate, the media had plenty of tough questions for her. But rather than focusing on the booming economy, questions over the border wall or the government shutdown, at least one intrepid reporter decided to hit her with the really pressing issue of our times. Where does she stand on getting rid of Columbus Day and establishing a new holiday to honor indigenous people?

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Despite how loaded that question sounds (particularly for Warren), she jumped into the fray on the side of ditching Columbus. You know… to support her people. (Inside Sources)

During her first visit since launching her 2020 presidential bid, Sen. Elizabeth Warren weighed in on the Granite State’s current debate over replacing Columbus Day with “Indigenous People’s Day,” backing Democrats’ efforts to make the change.

When asked about the issue by a reporter from the Concord Monitor, Sen. Warren–who has been embroiled in controversy over her unproven claims of Native American ancestry–supported efforts by states like New Hampshire to dump Columbus Day in favor of an Indigenous People’s holiday.

“My feeling is why would we not want to honor indigenous people?” Warren said. “These are the people who in Massachusetts, reached out and helped the first settlers, and helped them survive those first harsh and rugged years. I’m in favor of honoring, I think that’s a good thing to do.”

The whole movement to dump Columbus as some sort of colonialist slavemaster in favor of indigenous Americans is a popular, if largely symbolic talking point on the left, so it’s not shocking that Warren would run that up the flagpole as she launches her presidential bid. But given all the trouble she’s gotten into over the entire Native American ancestry thing, can she not stop herself from opening that can of worms over and over again?

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When Warren first rolled out her top-secret DNA test results, the effort totally flopped. Even Chris Cillizza, writing at CNN, was forced to admit that her test result gambit had probably made things worse rather than better. Rather than taking the issue off the table as she’d hoped, she became the centerpiece of seemingly endless memes speculating what else about her might fall into the 1/1024 category.

And now she’s decided to pick a side in New Hampshire’s debate about Columbus Day. Much like her controversial support for a suspicious Native American casino proposal in her home state, Warren may win over a few Native American voters (though many still reject her claims), but that’s really not a hot voting demographic to be chasing. What is she thinking, and doesn’t she have anyone advising her who could steer her away from these self-inflicted wounds?

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David Strom 3:20 PM | November 15, 2024
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