Elizabeth Warren has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump since it became clear he was about to tie up the Republican nomination this summer. Since then, the Massachusetts senator has regularly used her Twitter account to express her disgust for the man she’s called a “two-bit dictator.” But now, as the GOP’s nominee for president is grasping for excuses in case he loses the presidency, Warren moved her beef with Trump offline, and into the pages of the Washington Post.
Of course, Warren used her tweets promoting the opinion piece as an excuse to lay into her nemesis on his favorite platform. “Give me a break, @realDonaldTrump. You’re not losing because it’s rigged. You’re losing because we see through your creepy bullying,” Warren tweeted. She went on to tell the Republican presidential nominee to put on his “big-boy pants.”
Give me a break, @realDonaldTrump. You’re not losing because it’s rigged. You’re losing because we see through your creepy bullying.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 19, 2016
Anyone with children knows that whining about imaginary cheating is the last refuge of the sore loser, @realDonaldTrump.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 19, 2016
You can’t run a campaign based on hating women, African Americans, Muslims & immigrants & expect to win, @realDonaldTrump.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 19, 2016
It's not rigged, @realDonaldTrump. You're losing fair & square. Put on your big-boy pants because this is what accountability looks like.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 19, 2016
But @realDonaldTrump didn’t come up with the “rigged” election himself. It’s a longtime effort by the @GOP to delegitimize @TheDemocrats.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 19, 2016
It’s fascinating, @realDonaldTrump: “voter fraud” only seems to plague places where lots of people might vote for @TheDemocrats.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 19, 2016
And @realDonaldTrump’s antics – like attacking judges & calling for his opponent’s imprisonment – echo the @HouseGOP’s witch hunts.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 19, 2016
Read my @washingtonpost op-ed about how @realDonaldTrump didn’t invent the “rigged election” myth. The @GOP did: https://t.co/ay6gF6YKqZ
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 19, 2016
In her editorial, Warren took a slightly more academic approach. “GOP leaders have served up such a steady diet of stories about imaginary cheating that an Economist-YouGov poll shows that 45 percent of Republican voters believe voter fraud is a ‘very serious problem,’ and 46 percent have little or no confidence that ballots will be counted accurately,” the Massachusetts senator wrote. “They hold these views even though there is literally no evidence — none, zero, zip — that widespread voter fraud is a factor in modern American elections.” She went on:
“Republican leaders — and even Trump’s running mate — have tried to tiptoe out of the room when Trump makes ever-wilder claims of a rigged election. But as much as these Republicans would like everyone to believe that this is a Trump-only problem, it’s not.
“For years, Republican leaders have pushed the lie that voter fraud is a huge issue. In such states as Kansas and North Carolina , and across the airwaves of right-wing talk radio and Fox News, Republican voters have been fed exaggerated and imagined stories about fraud. Interestingly, all that fraud seems to plague only urban neighborhoods, minority communities, college campuses and other places where large numbers of people might vote for Democrats. The purpose of this manufactured hysteria is obvious: to delegitimize Democratic voters and justify Republican efforts to suppress their votes.”
Warren blamed these lies for support among citizens for voter ID laws, which “disproportionately suppress turnout by Democratic voters — especially blacks and Latinos.” She also reminds readers that federal courts have even gone as far as to ban the RNC from engaging in poll-watching activities in minority areas. Warren wraps up her op-ed by arguing that Trump’s status as nominee is a logical extension of Republican attitudes.
(Via The Washington Post)
