Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) blasted Marco Rubio as well as “co-Presidents” Donald Trump and Elon Musk as she defended the haphazard response of Democratics at Trump’s address last week during a SXSW live taping of podcast On With Kara Swisher.
Musk is close to Trump and oversees the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.
Warren likes to talk and does it well but, rather ominously, there was one question she declined to answer.
“Are you yourself scared of personal retribution?” Swisher asked. “I mean, it’s all fun and games with your name and stuff like that, but you yourself, you just answered a question about troops attacking Americans. Are you yourself fearful of your safety?
“Do you know the hardest part about the question you just asked is I don’t want to publicly answer that question. That is the first question I’ve had that I just don’t want to talk about,” Warren said.
Swisher was referring to Trump’s derisive nickname for Warren, Pocahontas, last aimed at her during his address last Tuesday night. Warren’s had also responded to a query from the audience asking if she thinks Trump would use troops against civilians if there were large scale protests.
“I don’t know,” she said.
Swisher called the Democrats’ response to Trump’s speech Tuesday “unfortunate.”
“Some of the members of Congress boycotted, but he couldn’t really tell they were missing,” the host said. “Congressman Al Green heckled and was escorted out of the chamber. Some Congresswomen wore pink. People held up signs that said, Save Medicaid, Musk Steals, False. There was some stony silence that seemed to annoy Trump. I felt it was not an effective protest.”
Warren acknowledged room for improvement but defended her party and said criticism should be aimed squarely at the GOP
“It’s the Republicans who are right now empowering Donald Trump, and they need to answer for it. It is the Republicans who are empowering Elon Musk. It is the Republicans who are evidently going along with a president or two co-presidents, who are not following the law, not following the Constitution, and going out of their ways to hurt the most vulnerable people in this country. Republicans need to be called out, and Democrats are increasingly doing that. Are we doing it enough? No. Are we doing it loudly enough? No. Have we done it as effectively as we need to? No. But we are not through. We are in this fight all the way because we understand the stakes.”
“I’m not here to criticize people who are trying to find their way to fight back against Donald Trump. Shoot, that’s my whole point, that we’ve all got to find our way to fight back. Do I want to see us coordinate and do I want to see us be effective? Of course.”
“Did you think that was effective?” asked Swisher.
“Look, I did what I thought was the right response. I listened to every word, and when he said something I agreed with, which is funding Ukraine, I clapped, and I clapped loudly, and evidently got under his skin. Good night’s work.”
On the Trump-Musk dynamic, Warren believes the Tesla and SpaceX founder “is beginning to pose a real threat” to the President.
“Elon sits next to him, stands next to him. Those pictures have burned in our brains where Elon stands in the Oval Office and presides. He is now the face of cancer research that doesn’t go forward, of your neighbor, the veteran, who can’t get his veteran benefits. Your mom, who’s been moved out of her nursing home. Your auntie, who can’t get anybody on the line at the Social Security office after they screwed up her check. He is now the face of it on behalf of Donald Trump. So, I think this is a way we wedge in.”
Reports surfaced recently of a confrontational cabinet meeting where Marco Rubio got into it with Musk and the president allegedly told cabinet members that they, not Elon, would control firing in their portfolio.
Swisher asked Warren why she had voted to confirm Rubio, a longtime colleague in the Senate.
“Because the Marco Rubio that I voted for is not the Marco Rubio of six weeks later. I’m just going to be blunt. I’ve worked with Marco Rubio. I’ve seen what Marco Rubio stood up for. Look, he was not my fave, but I figure, Republican Secretary of State, you can do a lot worse. I was wrong,” she said, noting the dismantling of USAID, which falls under his purview.
She said Rubio “bends the knee” to Trump, like Republicans in Congress, tech CEOs and others.
“This is money so little kids have access to medicine. This is money to stop AIDS. This is money to try to help starving people in the middle of a crisis. Marco Rubio used to be strong for that. Used to stand up for that sort of thing. This is someone who thought that the United States should play on an international stage.”
