Many Republicans were hopeful last week that Donald Trump would finally pivot to become a calmer, less bombastic presidential candidate.
On Monday, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee made clear that was not happening.
Trump lashed out at Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton Monday morning, calling Warren “Pocahontas, “one of the least productive senators in the U.S. Senate” and “goofy.” He also accused Warren of lying about her heritage, an issue that blew up during her 2012 campaign against then-incumbent Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass.
“She made up her heritage, which I think is racist. I think she’s a racist, actually because what she did was very racist,” Trump told NBC news during a phone interview Monday. During the call, he renewed his “Pocahontas” nickname for Warren, which critics have repeatedly blasted as racist.
That message stood in contrast to the relatively restrained tone of a statement his campaign released later in the day, in which he accused Warren of turning her back on her supporters. Trump called Warren “a turncoat for the causes she supposedly supports,” pointing out that she is now supporting Clinton despite the former secretary of state’s financial ties to Wall Street.
“Warren’s campaigning for Clinton stands in stark contrast to the liberal ideals she once practiced,” the statement read.
Trump dismissed the suggestions by wary members of the Republican establishment that he tone down his rhetoric, pointing to his ultimate victory in the GOP primary.
“I do what I do. I’ve listened to this for a long time – at the beginning of the primaries, ‘He should do this, he should do that.’ I won in a landslide,” Trump told NBC.
Warren has emerged as one of Trump’s most vocal critics in recent months, blasting his policies and character while campaigning on behalf of his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Warren and Clinton appeared together during a campaign event in Ohio Monday, in which Warren called Trump “a small, insecure money-grubber” and “a thin-skinned bully.”
“I do just love to see how she gets under Donald Trump’s thin skin,” Clinton said later of Warren, one of her potential running mates.
