Warren defends the decision to publish a DNA test



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Senator Elizabeth Warren defended the timing of publishing the results of a DNA test just before the midterm elections, declaring Tuesday at the Globe that she had gone public as soon as possible to begin to divert the DNA. Constant attention of the President and her contenders in the Senate.

"I have an election," Warren said during an hour – long interview with the editorial board. "Donald Trump appears in front of the crowd several times a week to attack me. My two opponents made the same attack. I found this analysis and made it public. "

The six-page genetic data report, released Sunday, is dated October 10. The analysis showed "strong evidence". Warren had a Native American ancestor aged six to ten generations. This generational interval suggests that Warren is between 1 / 64th and 1 / 1024th of the Amerindians. According to Warren's family tradition, his great-great-great-grandmother, O.C. Sarah Smith was at least partially aboriginal.

As expected, the results provoked only further attacks by Trump and other Republican critics, who quickly captured the weakest results – showing only 1 / 1024th of Native American blood – as ammunition to make more fun of it.

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"Now that her claims of belonging to an Indian heritage have turned out to be a scam and a lie, Elizabeth Warren should be apologizing for this fraud against the American public," Trump said Tuesday morning in the context of A tirade on Twitter against the Cambridge Democrat.


Some Democrats also criticized Warren's timing of the report – just weeks before the mid-term elections on November 6 as the party hoped to capitalize on a brutal reaction against Trump to break through the GOP majorities. in Congress.

When asked if, based on the results, she had made a mistake in identifying herself as a law professor, she was Native American, Warren expressed her regret, but did not admit that she was in trouble. fault.

"There is a distinction between citizenship and ancestry. I would have liked to be more attentive to this distinction. Tribes and only tribes determine citizenship, "said Warren in the Globe interview. "It's their right as a matter of sovereignty and they exercise it in the way they choose to exercise it. I respect this distinction. "

Pressed again if she made a mistake several decades ago by entering the repertoires of university minorities, Warren pointed out that she was thinking of her Native American ancestry, and not of any claim to tribal citizenship, when she made those decisions.

"The distinction is: I am not a citizen, I have never claimed, and I would have liked to be more attentive to that 30 years ago," said Warren, noting that She had cousins ​​of the tribe. "I would have liked to be clearer about this – more attentive, is the word."

The Cherokee Nation leadership criticized Warren for his actions.

"Using a DNA test to assert any connection with the Cherokee Nation or with a tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and erroneous," said Chuck Hoskin Jr., Secretary of State for the Cherokee Nation , in a statement released as a result of Warren's results went public.

Another of the three Cherokee tribes recognized by the federal government offered more support to Warren, telling Business Insider that she had not challenged Warren's decision. "Senator Elizabeth Warren does not claim to be a citizen of any tribal nation, and she is not a citizen of the Eastern Band," said East Band Chief Richard Sneed. "Like many other Americans, she has a family history of Cherokee and Delaware ancestry and evidence of Aboriginal ancestry.

On November 6, Geoff Diehl, Warren's Republican challenger, largely avoided mentioning the controversy surrounding Warren's claim to Native American ancestry, although he has made mention of it in recent television interviews, including at a recent conference. Tuesday appearance on Fox News.

"She has consistently misled the people of Massachusetts and Americans by claiming that she had this claim. Now, we know there is no real conclusive evidence of his Native American identity, "Diehl said.

He also attacked Warren saying that she had profited professionally from her Native American identity. A thorough investigation of the Boston Globe revealed clear evidence, in documents and interviews, that its claim of Native American ancestry had not helped it to progress remarkably in the ranks of the teaching profession. legal.

"Honesty with Elizabeth Warren seems to be a foreign word," Diehl said.

Warren was attacked on the issue much more aggressively by the third independent candidate, Shiva Ayyadurai of Belmont, whose main slogan of the campaign is "Only a true Indian can defeat a fake Indian".

Warren's decision to share the results of DNA is an unprecedented decision by an American politician. It is different from Hillary Clinton – who has resisted the disclosure of personal information – and Trump, who still refuses to disclose his tax returns.

In this interview, the Cambridge Democrat, who stated that she would "closely examine" her candidacy for the presidency after Nov. 6, relocated the results of the DNA analysis into the the context of other initiatives that it has recently taken to open up its track record to outside control.

"I believe in transparency," she said, highlighting her decision to release her tax returns for 2008, as well as all the employment documents "that we could get our hands on" to show. that his claims regarding Native American blood had not helped him professionally. . "It was just another part of it."

A thorough review of Warren's professional history by Globe, including interviews with 31 professors from the Harvard Law Employment Committee who offered him a job in 1993, revealed that Warren was considered a white woman by the hiring committees of each institution that employed it.

Warren said critics or critics who praised his decision did not make him change his mind because it was the right thing to do.

"I know what it is and I will not hide it," Warren said. "How do you sit here if you know what it is and people ask for it and you do not give an answer? I do not know how to do that and I do not want to do that. "

Victoria McGrane can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @vgmac.

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