When Elizabeth Warren applied for a post at Harvard University’s Law School years ago, she claimed minority status as an American Indian. Whether that claim had any part in acquiring that position she sought is unknown. But, soon afterward, Harvard did confirm that it had one Native American teaching law. When Donald Trump found out about her claim, he started referring to her as “Pocahontas.” Her claim of American Indian background never had any basis in fact.
Even after catching some criticism from people with genuine Indian credentials, such as the actual chief of the Cherokee Nation, it took quite a while for Warren to own up to her falsehood. When she did, it merited little mention. During the first week in December 2019, she chose to bare the truth in a campaign stop held in a bowling alley in New Hampshire. What she said in answer to a question appeared in the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, a small newspaper published for the small communities around Peterborough, New Hampshire. Reporter Ben Conant reported how Warren addressed the fact that she had no Indian heritage as follows:
It never had anything to do with any job I got or benefit. But even so, I shouldn’t have done it. I am not a person of color, I am not a citizen of a tribe, and I have apologized for confusion I’ve caused on tribal citizenship, tribal sovereignty, and for any harm I’ve caused.
Apology for “confusion”? She didn’t cause confusion; she told a lie. If a conservative had told a similar or even a lesser falsehood and been caught, he or she could likely kiss goodbye to whatever career was being sought.
After two years of hoopla surrounding her unusual claim, especially because she is now a leading contender for the Democratic Party’s nomination for the presidency, even her weak confession deserved national attention. It got next to none. If she were a Republican, even a liberal GOPer already deep into a campaign seeking national office, her candidacy for the nation’s highest post would likely have ended. But it certainly wasn’t the end for her.
Several years earlier, she claimed she was fired from a grade school teaching job in New Jersey because she was pregnant, a seemingly heartless way to treat an expectant mother. But she made no mention of the Riverdale, New Jersey, rule she had agreed to which stated that a pregnant woman must step aside at five months into her pregnancy. Nor did she mention that she was offered an opportunity to return to her teaching post after her child was born, an offer she declined to accept.
What can be learned of Elizabeth Warren via these two incidents is obvious. She tells falsehoods for personal gain. Not exactly a quality hoped for in an elected official.
Then there’s the case of former vice president Joe Biden. When he was still in office in March 2016, Biden threatened to cancel $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees to Ukraine if President Poroshenko refused to fire an underling Biden wanted dismissed. Some of the aid money ended up at an energy company known as Burisma, the very company that gave Joe’s son Hunter an executive executive post and paid him more than a million dollars for doing nothing.
When Hunter Biden’s lucrative relationship with Burisma drew some media attention, the story quickly ended up in a memory hole. The very talkative Joe Biden then boasted in a speech given to the Council on Foreign Relations that he used his position as vice president and his influence regarding a foreign aid packages to get what he wanted out of the Ukrainian government. What he sought was the firing of a Ukrainian official who was investigating Burisma. But like the good fortune enjoyed by Elizabeth Warren, the mass media buried details about every aspect of this incident.
Donald Trump has been impeached by the House and will soon face a Senate trial. One of his supposed crimes was asking questions about Burisma and Hunter Biden, not for his personal financial gain but to guard against misuse of foreign aid money. Such action by a president isn’t a crime; it’s his duty.
Donald Trump, of course, is a Republican who isn’t connected to the Deep State as is Joe Biden, and as Elizabeth Warren aspires to be tied. The usual result of Democrats being caught in lies or underhanded financial dealings is to mention them briefly and then forget about them. The fact that this is usually the case is because their media allies cooperate in ignoring their misdeeds.
John F. McManus is president emeritus of The John Birch Society.
