Warren says a woman can still be president, ‘it’s just going to be a little longer’

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Thursday she still has faith a woman can be elected to the White House — it just may take a little bit longer. 

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow questioned Warren over frustration some women are feeling after the lawmaker ended her campaign earlier in the day. 

“Women around the country are like honestly it’s not going to be any of them,” Maddow said, referencing the women who ran in the 2020 race. “Let’s get real, is it just that it can’t be any woman ever?”

“Oh god please no, that can’t be right,” Warren responded. “I know what you’re talking about, this can not be the right answer.” 

Sen. Warren: “It’s just going to be a little longer before we’re able to have a woman in the White House. But it doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen.” pic.twitter.com/vscv47KbZ2

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 6, 2020

The Massachusetts senator said she knows that’s not the right answer for one reason: the strong, powerful women she saw when walking through her campaign headquarters Thursday as she announced she’d be ending her campaign. 

Warren said that women who worked on her campaign thanked her for standing up to her former Democratic primary opponent Mike Bloomberg. She also said women thanked her for “being smart and making that OK,” and for “talking over men sometimes.”

“It’s just going to be a little longer before we’re going to have woman in the White House, but it doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen,” Warren said. “It doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen soon.” 

Warren noted that people said a Catholic couldn’t be elected until former President John F. Kennedy, and the same was said about not being able to elect a black man, until former President Obama was. She underscored the point that people will not believe that a woman can be elected to the office of the president until a woman is elected.  

The senator then repeated a mantra that she has used frequently throughout her political career to bring home the point. 

“We can’t lose hope over this. We can’t lose hope because the only way we make change is we get back up tomorrow we get back in the fight,” she said. “We persist.”

Currently, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is the only female candidate left in the 2020 presidential race. Gabbard has yet to gain any traction in the race as the next nominating contests arrive March 10.