President Donald Trump said Sen. Elizabeth Warren should apologize to the country for claiming Native American heritage, in a Monday appearance while touring areas affected by Hurricane Michael.
Trump was asked whether he owes Warren an apology after she released results of a DNA test showing she is somewhere between 1/64 to 1/1024 Native American.
“She owes the country an apology. What is the percentage? 1/1000th,” he asked back.
When questioned about whether he would continue his pledge to donate 1 million dollars to charity if she could prove her ancestry, Trump replied “I will only do it if I can test her personally … That will not be something that I enjoy doing.”
Trump previously dismissed Warren’s test results saying “who cares.” Warren has long claimed to have Native American ancestry based upon familial lore, even going so far as to submit recipes to a cookbook dedicated to Native American cuisine. Harvard Law School featured her as a “minority” professor in the 1990s based on her self-listing in a directory as a Native American.
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) listens during a town hall meeting in Roxbury, Massachusetts, October 13, 2018. (Photo: JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP/Getty Images)
The issue of Warren’s heritage surfaced in 2012 during a Senate campaign against Scott Brown after he raised her claims in an attempt to show she does not have integrity.
“As a kid, I never asked my mom for documentation when she talked about our Native American heritage. What kid would?” Warren said, defending herself. “But I knew my father’s family didn’t like that she was part Cherokee and part Delaware, so my parents had to elope.”