Elizabeth Warren is one of the Democrats’ best weapons against Donald Trump. While Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have to hold back on outright attacking the presumptive GOP nominee, Warren has slammed him on Twitter for everything from his racism and sexism to his incoherent foreign-policy plan, and on Tuesday night she took her tweets to the next level. Speaking at a gala for the Center for Popular Democracy (a liberal nonprofit organization), Warren called Trump a “small, insecure money-grubber” who “will never be president of the United States.”
She first brought up Trump’s newly publicized statement from 2006, in which he said he “sort of hoped” the housing market would crash. “Donald Trump was drooling over the idea of a housing meltdown because it meant he could buy up a bunch more property on the cheap,” she said. “What kind of a man does that? Root for people to get thrown out on the street? Root for two little girls in Clark County, Nevada, to end up living in a van?”
“I’ll tell you exactly what kind,” she continued. “A man who cares about no one but himself. A small, insecure money-grubber who doesn’t care who gets hurt, so long as he makes some money off it. A man who will never be president of the United States.”
Then she went in on Trump’s grand plan to repeal the Dodd-Frank financial reforms — a move that would make him a hero on Wall Street. “Now that he’s sewn up the Republican nomination, Donald Trump is dropping the pretense” of supporting working-class families, she said. She went on:
Now he’s kissing the fannies of poor, misunderstood Wall Street bankers, but the American people are not looking for a bait and switch. Donald Trump is worried about helping poor little Wall Street? Let me find the world’s smallest violin to play a sad, sad song.
Which seems like plenty of Trump-bashing for one speech, but Warren kept going:
I want to make just one last point about Donald Trump that won’t fit into a Twitter war, one last point that sums up what Donald Trump is all about — his taxes. Trump likes being a billionaire and doesn’t think the rules that apply to everyone else should apply to him. But let’s be clear: Donald Trump didn’t get rich on his own. He inherited a fortune from his father and kept it going by scamming people, declaring bankruptcy, and skipping out on what he owed.
“Donald Trump thinks supporting them is throwing money down the drain,” she said, referring to people on taxpayer-funded welfare programs. “I say we just throw Donald Trump down the drain.”
Warren has yet to formally endorse either Democratic candidate, although Clinton campaign insiders say there’s a strong push to name her as Clinton’s running mate — something Warren didn’t say she won’t consider. But she’s also expected to play a key role in unifying the Democratic party before the convention in July, which would be kind of hard to do if she chooses sides.
Whether or not she plays a larger role in the election, her instinct for Trump-baiting is a true gift.
