On her first full day of campaigning, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) suggested that President Donald Trump may be jailed by the time election day in 2020 rolls around.
"By the time we get to 2020, Donald Trump may not even be president," Warren said to supporters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Sunday. "In fact, he may not even be a free person."
The Massachusetts senator has largely avoided criticizing Trump by name since she announced her exploratory committee for a 2020 run for the Democratic Party presidential nomination on New Year's Eve, but on Sunday Warren's tone shifted.
"What happens in 2020 is going to determine the direction of our nation, the direction of our people," she said, noting that America is experiencing a "dangerous moment."
"Every day, there's a racist tweet, a hateful tweet, something really dark and ugly," Warren said referring to Trump. "And what are we, as candidates, as activists, the press, going to do about it? Are we going to let him use those to divide us?"
She then went on to explain that the solution from this point onwards should be to avoid engaging in Trump's actions and to focus on what needs to be done to mend the country.
"Here's how I see it: Donald Trump is not the only problem we've got. Yeah. Donald Trump is the symptom of a badly broken system," she said. "So, our job as we start rolling into the next election is not just to respond on a daily basis. It's to talk about what we understand is broken in this country, talk about what needs to be done to change it and talk about how we're going to do that, because that is not only how we win, it's how we make the change we need to make."
Warren's comments came a day after Trump took aim at the Massachusetts senator over her claims of having Native American heritage when she officially announced her candidacy for a 2020 presidential bid on Saturday. "Today Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to by me as Pocahontas, joined the race for President," the president tweeted yesterday. "Will she run as our first Native American presidential candidate, or has she decided that after 32 years, this is not playing so well anymore? See you on the campaign TRAIL, Liz!"
Shortly after, social media users accused the president of joking about the 19th century Trail of Tears by capitalizing "Trail" in his tweet. The Trail of Tears was a string of forced relocations of Native Americans from their ancestral lands in the American southeast to reservations in Oklahoma under President Andrew Jackson following the Indian Removal Act of 1830, during which, thousands perished from hunger, disease and exposure before they arrived.
"4,000 Native Americans died on the Trail of Tears due to forced relocations under the Andrew Jackson administration. Trump decided to honor Navajo code talker vets in front of Andrew 'Indian Killer' Jackson's portrait last year because of course. Now this..." New York Times columnist Wajahat Ali tweeted.
Andrew Stroelheim from the Human Rights Watch added: "Trump jokes about genocide... His son laughs... There is no limit to the immorality and indecency of these people."
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