Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said Saturday that she plans to "take a hard look" at running for president in 2020 after the midterm elections in November, her most explicit acknowledgment yet of her national ambitions.
Warren made the statement in response to a question about a possible presidential run at a town hall event in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and she explicitly put her deliberations in the context of the searing drama playing out in Washington around the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
"This week, I watched 11 men who were too chicken to ask a woman a single question. I watched as Brett Kavanaugh acted like he was entitled to that position and angry at anyone who would question him. I watched powerful men helping a powerful man make it to an even more powerful position. I watched that, and I thought: Time's up," she said, according to a video posted by Warren's Senate campaign. "It's time for women to go to Washington and fix our broken government, and that includes a woman at the top. So here's what I promise: After Nov. 6, I will take a hard look at running for president."
Warren, a former Harvard Law School professor whose academic and advocacy work helped pave the way for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has emerged as a fierce and persistent critic of President Donald Trump - one who has shown a special ability to win Trump's withering attention. Since the middle of his presidential campaign in 2016, Trump has frequently called Warren "Pocahontas," a mocking reference to Warren's disputed claims of Native American ancestry. He did so again at a rally in Wheeling, West Virginia, on Saturday night.
In a speech widely interpreted as a prelude to a presidential run, Warren addressed the "Pocahontas" controversy head-on in a February speech where she delved into her family history and defended her claims of Native American ancestry while acknowledging she is not an official member of any tribe. The Boston Globe published an investigation earlier this month that found no evidence that those claims played a role in her rise to prominence at Harvard or her hiring at other law schools where she taught.
Warren's announcement - and her willingness to connect a potential run to the broader #MeToo feminist movement that has upended business, media and government institutions - stands to further stoke speculation about how the marathon race to choose a 2020 Democratic nominee will play out.
ChiTrib mentions other possible 2020 top-of-the-ticket office seekers, of which Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders stand out positively at this site; while mention in that 2020 sense of Joe Biden brings to mind, "Say It Ain't So, Joe." Davos man is not regular peoples' man. Nor is Cory Booker, with troubling ties to Wall Street; big campaign money from Wall Street.
Timmer on thinning the ranks.