After spending months mocking Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) claim that she has Native American ancestry and demanding that she prove it, President Donald Trump feigned ignorance on Monday when confronted with the fact that the senator had taken a DNA test confirming that she has an ancestor who was Native American.
On the White House lawn, the president was asked about his reaction to Warren's test, which revealed that one of her ancestors, likely from six to 10 generations ago, was a Native American.
"Who cares?" Trump replied hastily.
When pressed about the $1 million Trump publicly offered to give to the charity of Warren's choice if she produced DNA evidence of her family background, the president flatly denied making the offer—despite widely-available footage of him doing so on July 5 at a rally in Great Falls, Montana.
"I didn't say that," Trump told a reporter. "No, you'd better read it again."
"Who cares?" President Trump, who has railed about Sen. Warren's heritage, says when asked about Warren releasing her DNA test. https://t.co/7cfAD6dLzw pic.twitter.com/gwBSauRNsZ
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) October 15, 2018
To clear up any confusion, a number of journalists and critics posted the president's remarks from July on social media.
Trump denies that he ever said he’d donate $1 million to charity if she took a DNA test and it showed she had Native American ancestry.
The quote: “I will give you a million dollars to your favorite charity, paid for by Trump, if you take the test and it shows you’re an Indian”
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) October 15, 2018
Less than 5 minutes ago @realDonaldTrump denied saying he'd ever offered to give Elizabeth Warren $1 million to take a DNA test. Go to 1:20 of this video.https://t.co/sYHYJ9HVC8
It's just THAT easy to demonstrate what a liar Trump is. Every single day.
— Medium Happy (@jdubs88) October 15, 2018
The White House has backed up Trump's attacks on Warren in recent months, with Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying last November that Warren's so-called "lies" about her ancestry "to advance her career" were more offensive than the president's insistence on calling the senator "Pocahontas."
But on Monday one of Trump's top advisers, Kellyanne Conway, appeared to deny that a controversy over Warren's heritage had ever taken place, calling the test the president had specifically asked the senator to take "junk science."
"I haven't looked at the test," Conway told reporters. "I know everybody likes to pick their junk science and sound science depending on the conclusion it seems some days, but I haven't looked at the DNA test and it really doesn't interest me to be frank with you."
Kellyanne Conway: "I haven't looked at the test. I know everybody likes to pick their junk science & sound science depending on the conclusion it seems some days but I haven't looked at the DNA test and it really doesn't interest me to be frank with you." https://t.co/oJhYDzMO2J pic.twitter.com/1BvMuby96J
— The Hill (@thehill) October 15, 2018
The White House's especially brazen denialism was slammed by several critics on social media.
As @ddale8 has shown, Trump lies literally a hundred times a week and yet he's set the narrative here that Warren is somehow the untrustworthy one. It's just surreal.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) October 15, 2018
The most astonishing thing about Trump is that he gets so many people to think he's strong when he's the weakest little pissant on earth. https://t.co/LYT2cXYkM0
— Oliver Griswold (@originalgriz) October 15, 2018
