Warren Apologizes for Native American Claim, Hints More Evidence Could Emerge

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Democratic 2020 hopeful Elizabeth Warren has apologized for making false claims of Native American heritage in her past, but in doing so, has hinted there may be more evidence out there that could soon emerge.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) was once again forced to apologize on Wednesday for claiming Cherokee heritage on a 1986 registration card for the Texas state bar that has recently surfaced.

The anti-Trump Democrat also left the door open that there may be more documents out there with similar race claims.

The embarrassing controversy appears to be difficult for the senator to put behind her as she prepares to formally launch her presidential campaign on Saturday. 

On Wednesday, a reporter asked if she would drop out of the race, to which she responded, "Thank you."

Here is the form Elizabeth Warren filled out for the State Bar of Texas claiming American Indian heritage. pic.twitter.com/VwHifS7BCL

— Amy Gardner (@AmyEGardner) February 6, 2019

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Fox News' Shepard Smith called Warren's actions "cultural appropriation."

A Boston Globe columnist wrote flatly: With the latest revelation, Elizabeth Warren can't beat Donald Trump.

Questions about Warren’s heritage date to at least 2012, when her Republican opponent seized on the issue during her first Senate campaign to wrongly argue she identified as a Native American to advance her career.

President Donald Trump frequently deploys a racial slur to criticize Warren.

Warren, who apologized last Friday to the Cherokee Nation for revealing the results of a DNA test last autumn that showed just a trace amount of Native American lineage, was asked if there are any other documents where she claimed the ancestry.

"So all I know is during this time period, this is consistent with what I did because it was based on my understanding from my family's stories," she said.

"But family stories are not the same as tribal citizenship."

The registration card was first reported by The Washington Post. Fox News has verified the document, which marks the first known instance of Warren claiming Native American ancestry on an official document.

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Hillary Chabot, a reporter at The Boston Herald, wrote that the senator is looking to distance herself from the scandal, but brought up the wealth issue as another potential headache for Warren.

"Warren has worked hard to craft a narrative as a scrappy Dust Bowl native ready to take down vast corporations and billionaires like Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. But she usually fails to mention her own vast wealth," she wrote, pointing out that Warren and her husband are worth as much as $11 million.

Paulette Jordan, a former Democratic state representative in Idaho and a member of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, told The Associated Press, “It’s not exactly how you’d want to enter the arena” as a presidential candidate.

She apologized in private last week to the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation for “causing confusion on tribal sovereignty and tribal citizenship and the harm that resulted,” said tribal spokeswoman Julie Hubbard.

“I am not a tribal citizen. Tribes and only tribes determine citizenship,” Warren said, adding, “I have apologized for not being more sensitive to that distinction. It’s an important distinction.”