Fox News Host Calls Elizabeth Warren Self-appointed Head of '#MeSioux Movement'

Fox News host Tucker Carlson laid in to Senator Elizabeth Warren over her DNA test results, calling her "Fauxcahontas" and deriding her as the self-appointed head of the "#MeSioux Movement," a riff on the #MeToo campaign against the sexual exploitation of women.

Warren, who represents Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate, released test results showing "strong evidence" that she is somewhere between 1/64 and 1/1,024 Native American, an attempt to prove she has Cherokee heritage as she has often claimed—and been mocked for.

The senator's critics accuse her of using the claim to advance her career, including as a professor at Harvard Law School, which referred to her as a "woman of color" and listed her as a minority member of staff when she worked there.

She denies using Native American heritage to her advantage. "Bottom line: My heritage played no role in my hiring—ever," Warren tweeted on Monday.

During Carlson's show on Monday night, he said Warren's test results show she is "about, roughly, as American Indian as virtually every white person you've ever met. Which is to say, not American Indian at all. So don't count on running into Elizabeth Warren at the next meeting of the tribes," Carlson said.

"But do count on her to keep pretending that she's somehow the spokeswoman for indigenous peoples everywhere. Warren has appointed herself head of the #MeSioux movement."

Read more: Elizabeth Warren's DNA test reveals that she "is running for president" says Colbert

President Donald Trump has ridiculed Warren about her claim to Native American ancestry. During one rally, he offered to test her himself and said he would donate $1 million to her favorite charity if it "shows you're an Indian."

In a video made by Warren and played by Carlson on his show, she accuses Trump of using her to mock Native American people.

"Who's mocking Native Americans?" Carlson asked. "Well, if anyone's doing that it's Elizabeth Warren. She's the one who's stolen their identity and leveraged their suffering to climb the greasy pole of our fake meritocracy. No high plains whiskey trader ever acted with more ruthless cynicism than she has."

The Cherokee Nation put out a statement criticizing Warren over her test results. "A DNA test is useless to determine tribal citizenship," Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. said in the statement.

"Current DNA tests do not even distinguish whether a person's ancestors were indigenous to North or South America… Using a DNA test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong.

"It makes a mockery out of DNA tests and its legitimate uses while also dishonoring legitimate tribal governments and their citizens, whose ancestors are well documented and whose heritage is proven. Senator Warren is undermining tribal interests with her continued claims of tribal heritage."

Responding to the backlash, Warren, who is tipped to fight for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, wrote on Twitter that she took the test because she "won't sit quietly" for Trump's "racism."

"But DNA & family history has nothing to do with tribal affiliation or citizenship, which is determined only—only—by Tribal Nations. I respect the distinction, & don't list myself as Native in the Senate," Warren wrote, before taking aim at Trump again in multiple tweets attacking him.

"Speaking of family stories, @realDonaldTrump has one, too. It's the story of a second-generation tax cheat who was handed a $413 million inheritance through rich-guy loopholes and outright criminal fraud," Warren tweeted.

Elizabeth Warren
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks to members of the press during a demonstration against Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh in the Hart Senate Office Building on September 27, 2018 in Washington, DC. Warren released DNA... Zach Gibson/Getty Images

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Shane Croucher is a Senior Editor based in London, UK. He oversees the My Turn team. He has previously overseen ... Read more

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