Things grew tense Monday night on CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront (with fill-in host Jake Tapper) as one of the rare CNN conservatives in political commentator Scott Jennings threw down with The Nation’s Joan Walsh over Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren’s attention-grabbing attempt to reinforce her minuscule Native American heritage.
Walsh fiercely defended Warren for “authenticating her story,” while Jennings nuked “bizarro Pocahontas” Warren for “desperate” attempt “to be part of the failed identity politics that ruined the Democratic Party” and served as “the most pathetic self-own I’ve ever seen.”
To start, Walsh went first by stating that the issue won’t be put “to bed, but....I find that Republicans are moving the goalposts here” and that Warren’s “not claiming tribal membership, tribal citizenship, only tribes can do that” but instead “authenticating her story, which in a way, her brothers do more than the DNA test.”
Jennings pointed to an old New York Times piece that found “the average white, European American has twice as much native American blood than Senator Warren claims in her DNA test.” He then joked that “the pitching staff for the Atlanta Braves has more a claim to be Native Americans than Elizabeth Warren.”
As Walsh tried to interject, Jennings added that Warren “brought this on herself, by filling out these forms over the years, claiming to be something she is not,” making her “so desperate to be part of the failed identity politics that ruined the Democratic Party.”
To Tapper’s credit, he let them duke it out, with Walsh condemning Jennings while the conservative guest lambasted Warren for “the most pathetic self-own I’ve ever seen” (click “expand”):
WALSH: That is so ridiculous. That is so ridiculous, Scott.
JENNINGS: That she took this step to release this — this is the most pathetic self-own I’ve ever seen.
WALSH: She never — she filled it out in a self-identifying faculty guide. She never used it, you see — I mean, the real story The Boston Globe did over a month ago, she made all of her personnel files available and they — the personnel files showed that she never once used her — any kind of Native ancestry to get a job, she never once filled out an application —
JENNINGS: Why write it down.
WALSH: — to get a job.
JENNINGS: Why put a recipe —
WASLH: Because she —
JENNINGS: — in the Cherokee cookbook. The Cherokee Nation is rightfully upset. The President says she owes the country an apology.
WALSH: They don't like the Atlanta Braves either.
JENNINGS: She owes the Cherokee tribe an apology for what she's done.
Jennings also unloaded some zingers as Walsh argued that there’s “a serial sexual assaulter” in the Oval Office:
This is ridiculous and look, this is where the Democratic Party is. They’ve got a plagiarizer, a socialist, Spartacus, creepy porn lawyer, and now bizarro Pocahontas running for president. There’s no way any of these people — there’s no way — there’s no way they’re going to compete with Trump.
Kaboom!
Walsh moved onto how dismayed she was with the President failing to pay a million dollars to Warren’s charity of choice as he had stated if she took a DNA test.
Trump has clearly been trolling the press when he stated that he’d want to administer the test himself, so it was no surprise that Walsh bought it hook, line, and sinker by calling it “so disgusting” and “a violation of her bodily autonomy.”
When Jennings opined that “this whole thing was created by Warren bringing attention to herself,” Walsh became incensed: “You get to decide if she believes her mother or not, Scott Jennings? You get to decide that? You get to say what her ancestry is, and how she should feel about it, how she should feel about this story?”
Jennings wanted to know from Walsh if this meant that anyone can make up their heritage and when she wouldn’t answer, the debate concluded as such (click “expand”):
JENNINGS: Is that what she's going to run on? I was 1/1,000th —
WALSH: No, it’s not what she’s going to run on, but —
JENNINGS: — it's crazy —
WALSH: — she’s putting it out there.
JENNINGS: — and it's going to sound crazy to anybody —
WALSH: She’s been accused of having none and she’s proving she had some.
JENNINGS: — who doesn’t — isn’t absorbed by the self-identity politics. This is —
WALSH: It's not about identity politics. She says she actually put — she started using this identity when her aunts were dying, when her mother was dying, when the women in her family who were connected to this lineage were leaving, when they were talking about the past, and that she put it in this booklet, so she could be a mentor to other students. She never used it for any —
TAPPER: That's all the time we have[.]
To see the relevant transcript from CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront on October 15, click “expand.”
CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront
October 15, 2018
7:17 p.m. EasternJAKE TAPPER: New tonight, major backlash against Senator Elizabeth Warren who earlier today rolled out a slickly-produced campaign ad revealing the results of a DNA test which reveals she does have some Native American ancestry.
[CLIPS FROM WARREN VIDEO]
TAPPER: Tonight, President Trump saying, not surprisingly, that he's not impressed with the results which put Warren somewhere between 1/64th and 1/1,024th Native American and the President says has no plans to donate the million dollars he said he would give to her favorite charity if she had a DNA test done that proved she wasn’t Indian.
[TRUMP CLIP]
TAPPER: Perhaps more importantly, the Cherokee Nation seems to be upset about Warren's claims as well: “Using a DNA test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherkoee Nation or any tribal, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong,” they wrote in a statement. “Senator Warren is undermining tribal interests with her continued claims of tribal heritage.” OutFront now, CNN political commentators Joan Walsh, she’s national affairs correspondent for The Nation and CNN political commentator and also Scott Jennings, former adviser to senator Mitch Mcconnell and former special assistant to President George W. Bush. Joan, let me start with you, The Boston Globe looked into this. DNA test results reported she was somewhere between 1/64th and 1,1024th Native. This would make her somewhere between .09 percent and three percent Native American. Do you think this is going to put this issue to bed?
JOAN WALSH: I don't know if it’ll put the issue to bed, Jake, but you know, I find that Republicans are moving the goalposts here. First she had no ancestry. The President said that multiple times. Now, she doesn’t have enough ancestry and I'm certainly not going to get into an argument with the head of the Cherokee Nation. The one thing I’ll point out, though, is that she says in the video, that she's not claiming tribal membership, tribal citizenship, only tribes can do that. This is about authenticating her story, which in a way, her brothers do more than the DNA test, right? Because the brothers, two of whom are Republicans, sit there and share her outrage that their family story of their dad not being able to marry their mom because she was part Indian, that that was passed down to them. That was not a lie. That was something they took seriously, that they valued, that they lived with. So, that's what's powerful to me about that ad.
TAPPER: So, Scott, Native Americans, many of them, not happy about her claim. Also, I’ve heard a lot of Native Americans say they’re not happy about how the President attacks them. Take a listen.
[TRUMP CLIPS]
TAPPER: Is he going to keep up with that, you think?
SCOTT JENNINGS: Oh, I have no doubt that he will. I mean, when the President says he has more Native American blood, he might be right, according to scientists in The New York Times, the average white, European American has twice as much native American blood than Senator Warren claims in her DNA test. Look, the pitching staff for the Atlanta Braves has more a claim to be Native Americans than Elizabeth Warren.
WALSH: I wouldn't go there. I wouldn't go there.
JENNINGS: And she — and she —
WALSH: I really wouldn't go there.
JENNINGS: Well, are going to die on this hill over this?
WALSH: The Braves? Well, no. I’m just not going to bring up the name of the Atlanta Braves —
JENNINGS: Look, the reality is —
WALSH: — to attack Elizabeth Warren.
JENNINGS: — she brought this on herself, by filling out these forms over the years, claiming to be something she is not. She is so desperate to be part of the failed identity politics that ruined the Democratic Party.
WALSH: That is so ridiculous. That is so ridiculous, Scott.
JENNINGS: That she took this step to release this — this is the most pathetic self-own I’ve ever seen.
WALSH: She never — she filled it out in a self-identifying faculty guide. She never used it, you see — I mean, the real story The Boston Globe did over a month ago, she made all of her personnel files available and they — the personnel files showed that she never once used her — any kind of Native ancestry to get a job, she never once filled out an application —
JENNINGS: Why write it down.
WALSH: — to get a job.
JENNINGS: Why put a recipe —
WASLH: Because she —
JENNINGS: — in the Cherokee cookbook. The Cherokee Nation is rightfully upset. The President says she owes the country an apology.
WALSH: They don't like the Atlanta Braves either.
JENNINGS: She owes the Cherokee tribe an apology for what she's done. This is ridiculous and look, this is where the Democratic Party is. They’ve got a plagiarizer, a socialist, Spartacus, creepy porn lawyer, and now bizarro Pocahontas running for president. There’s no way any of these people —
WALSH: Well, you’ve got a serial —
JENNINGS: — there’s no way —
WALSH: — you’ve got a serial sexual assaulter who is President.
JENNINGS: — there’s no way they’re going to compete with Trump. Come on.
WALSH: You’ve got a serial sexual assaulter who is president. We’ll see who’s going to compete with Trump.
TAPPER: So, lemme ask you a question because President Trump in July said he would give a million dollars to charity if she took a test.
WALSH: He did.
TAPPER: Let's just — let’s just play that sound.
[TRUMP CLIP]
TAPPER: So Senator Warren earlier today suggested the charity she would like that million dollars to go to. Do you — I don’t —
WALSH: Yes. It's National Indigenous Women’s Center. So, she picked a charity that would benefit native women and, of course, the President is now lying, and frankly, again, you know, I guess we shouldn't be surprised that a man who boasted on tape about grabbing women by the you-know-what is saying he’s going to give her this DNA test personally, but it’s so disgusting. It's such a violation of her bodily autonomy. It’s — it was a horrible thing to say with his wife standing there, but nothing surprising any more.
TAPPER: Do you think he should pay the money — the million dollars? No, you don’t.
JENNINGS: No, no, no.
WALSH: Of course you don’t.
JENNINGS: She was not telling the truth, this whole thing was created by Warren bringing this on herself. All of this scorn she's getting from the President, from the Cherokee nation —
WALSH: You get to decide if she believes her mother or not, Scott Jennings? You get to decide that? You get to say what her ancestry is, and how she should feel about it, how she should feel about this story?
JENNINGS: So, you can just make up — you can just make up —
WALSH: She didn’t make it up. She didn’t make it up.
JENNINGS: — a tribal heritage —
WALSH: She didn’t make it up.
JENNINGS: — and claim you are something you’re not.
WALSH: She didn’t make it up.
JENNINGS: Is that what she's going to run on? I was 1/1,000th —
WALSH: No, it’s not what she’s going to run on, but —
JENNINGS: — it's crazy —
WALSH: — she’s putting it out there.
JENNINGS: — and it's going to sound crazy to anybody —
WALSH: She’s been accused of having none and she’s proving she had some.
JENNINGS: — who doesn’t — isn’t absorbed by the self-identity politics. This is —
WALSH: It's not about identity politics. She says she actually put — she started using this identity when her aunts were dying, when her mother was dying, when the women in her family who were connected to this lineage were leaving, when they were talking about the past, and that she put it in this booklet, so she could be a mentor to other students. She never used it for any —
TAPPER: That's all the time we have, thank you so much. Joan Walsh —
WALSH: Sure.
TAPPER: — and Scott Jennings. Appreciate it.
