Elizabeth Warren's DNA test was part of a movement of transparency

Donald Trump was the least transparent presidential candidate of the last decades. He defied 40 years of precedent in 2016 when he refused to publish his tax returns. Rather than sharing his medical history with reporters, he dictated a memo to his personal physician and spoke of his state of health in a television interview with Dr. Oz's controversial doctor. Even as president, his business operations remain opaque.

One of the contenders to hiring him in 2020 is trying to use transparency against him.

Unveiling the results of a DNA test of her ancestors this week, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren showed how much she would go to refute Trump's repeated, baseless assertion that she lied about having a Native American ancestry to move forward in the academic world.

But this is not the only gesture she has made to be more open.

After six years of answering questions from Capitol Hill journalists during routine interviews, Warren recently opened the CC press corps for more spontaneous Q & A sessions.

"In a world where Donald Trump is trying to get rid of any effort on the part of the press to hold him accountable," she said, "then I think that means it's even more important that the rest of us who serve the government on both sides of the aisle. "

In recent weeks, Warren has also had a long talk with the Boston World, which reviewed hundreds of documents, interviewed 31 professors and published a dozen staff forms related to his academic career at Harvard University and other schools. the World found that she did not receive preferential treatment at the time of hiring due to claims regarding the US Indian heritage.

And in August, she also published her 10-year federal and federal tax returns online.

Warren explicitly linked the publication of his own records to Trump's refusal to do the same, especially with respect to his taxes.

The purchase of more transparency shows that Warren may have learned from Hillary Clinton's failed campaign.

Although Clinton has published his tax returns and medical records, like other candidates, his campaign has often had a confusing attitude toward transparency. His medical records were far from the disclosure level offered by John McCain in 2008 when he allowed reporters to view thousands of documents. She refused to publish the transcripts of the speeches she made to Goldman Sachs and questions persisted until the end of the Clinton Foundation campaign.

Although she was far more transparent than Trump, Clinton continually nurtured the perception that she was not.

This hurt her repeatedly, when she did not reveal that she was suffering from pneumonia, fueling conservative conspiracy theories when she fell on the way out of a hospital. memorial for Sept. 11 attacks and when WikiLeaks released Goldman Sachs transcripts after Campaign President John Podesta's email account was hacked.

And this played a role in the most damaging scandal of his campaign, the revelation that she was using a private mail server as a secretary of state.

Until now, Warren's approach is more like that of the former Florida governor, Jeb Bush, who posted on his own website, jebbushemails.com, e-mails from his post. Governor, in December 2014. Although e-mails were already available under state law, Bush's decision was aimed at showing that he had nothing to hide, and the emails were barely made waves in the Republican primary.

Warren's DNA test seems to have turned against him in the short term. The Cherokee nation blamed him for trying to use a DNA test to prove his ancestry, calling the choice "inappropriate and wrong," which Trump had used as an excuse to hit her with joy. And some Democrats have asked why she was involved in the Trump cause, especially in the run-up to the mid-term elections.

But being transparent could reinforce one of Warren's likely campaign themes – if she chooses to run – to strengthen anti-corruption laws.

In a speech delivered in August at the National Press Club revealing a government reform bill, Warren said measures such as compelling all presidential candidates and other federal officials to disclose their tax returns and to outlaw for life the lobbying of former lawmakers and government secretaries.

"People do not believe their government is doing it right because they think the government is working for the rich, the powerful and the powerful, not for the American people," she said. "And here's the kicker: They're right."