Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Saturday faced questions related to the results of a DNA test she took last year while stumping in Iowa for her first trip since running for president.
Warren, who announced on New Year’s Eve that she is forming an exploratory committee for a White House bid, addressed questions about the test during a stop in Sioux City.
“I’m glad you asked that question. I genuinely am,” she told an attendee at a town hall who asked about the test’s results.{mosads}
“I’m not a person of color. I’m not a citizen of a tribe. Tribal citizenship is very different from ancestry. Tribes and only tribes determine tribal citizenship and I respect that difference,” she continued.
Warren made similar comments in December while giving a commencement speech at Morgan State University, a historically black institution.
“I’m not a person of color. And I haven’t lived your life or experienced anything like the subtle prejudice, or more overt harm, that you may have experienced just because of the color of your skin,” she said.
The Democrat last year took a DNA test intended to put to rest scrutiny that she had claimed Native American ancestry, something President Trump had used to question her credibility repeatedly. The test infuriated some Native Americans who said the move diminished an ethnicity and identity to a genealogy test.
Warren has never sought to join a Native American tribe, but has previously identified as Native American, according to reports.
Trump has repeatedly attacked Warren and her claims of Native American ancestry, labeling her “Pocahontas” and saying he would look forward to facing her in a general election.
“Now I can’t stop Donald Trump from what he’s going to do. I can’t stop him from hurling racial insults. I don’t have the power to do that. But what I can do is I can be in this fight for all of our families,” Warren told the Iowa crowd.
Following the DNA controversy, some have cast doubt on Warren’s possible presidential aspirations.
The Boston Globe’s editorial board last month said Warren would be a “divisive figure” at a time when Democrats need to present a united front against Trump.
During her stop in Iowa on Saturday, Warren sought to instead hit home a message of economic fairness for working and middle class families.
“The only way that we’re going to return this government to the people is if all of us is in this fight,” she said.
“Why are working families facing such a steep path? Mommas work as hard today as they did back when my momma did, but today it’s gotten harder, rockier, steeper, and for families of color, it has gotten even steeper.”