Warren on why she released DNA test: Trump, opponents ‘have made the same attack’

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) defended her decision to release DNA test results in an interview with The Boston Globe Tuesday, explaining that both President Trump and the opponents vying for her Senate seat in the midterm elections “have made the same attack.”

Warren has come under fire for her decision to share DNA test results that a researcher said “strongly support” her having a Native American ancestor.

{mosads}The move has been seen as an effort to respond to critics, primarily Trump, who have repeatedly claimed that she fabricated her heritage.

“I have an election,” Warren said. “Donald Trump goes in front of crowds multiple times a week to attack me. Both of my opponents have made the same attack. I got this analysis back, and I made it public.”

Trump took the Twitter to criticize the senator, saying she “took a bogus DNA test and it showed that she may be 1/1024, far less than the average American. Now Cherokee Nation denies her, ‘DNA test is useless.’ Even they don’t want her. Phony!”

The Cherokee Nation also released a statement Monday criticizing those touting DNA tests as proof of Native American heritage.

“Using a DNA test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong,” said Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. “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.”

Warren said that she agrees with the tribe’s criticism.

“There’s a distinction between citizenship and ancestry. I wish I had been more mindful of that distinction. The tribes and only the tribes determine citizenship,” said Warren told the Globe. “It’s their right as a matter of sovereignty, and they exercise that in the ways they choose to exercise it. I respect that distinction.”

In response to comments about the timing of her release being so close to the midterms, Warren explained that she made the results public as soon as they were available.

“I know what it is, and I’m not going to hide it,” said Warren. “How do you sit here if you know what it is, and people ask, and you don’t give an answer? I don’t know how to do that and I don’t want to do that.”