Warren used Republican attacks on her authenticity, a sexist trope in politics, to rally supporters

[BeyondGeography]

As Elizabeth Warren Rises, the G.O.P. Deploys an Old Tactic

WASHINGTON — President Trump and his allies have struggled for months to come up with effective ways to confront Senator Elizabeth Warren, whose steady rise in the polls put the lie to Mr. Trump’s boasts last spring that she was “finished” and “gone,” undone by her past claims of Native American ancestry. Republicans have tried to brand her as a socialist, attack her policy ideas and portray her as too left-wing for the American electorate. None of those arguments have diminished her political momentum, robust fund-raising or polling.

But in the past week, conservative news sites have challenged Ms. Warren’s story about how a public school principal forced her out of a teaching job in 1971 because she was “visibly pregnant,” and the Republican National Committee grabbed onto the issue to wage its own attack. In doing so, Republicans employed a tactic — questioning a female candidate’s authenticity — that is at once often a sexist trope in politics and a strategy used against Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Ms. Warren and her team, in turn, have confidently parried those attacks and used them to rally supporters. Rather than take a defensive posture, Ms. Warren has responded by offering her personal story as one of countless instances of pregnancy discrimination that have occurred in American workplaces, where it remains a widespread problem. In a video that has been viewed more than a million times across social media platforms, Ms. Warren read messages from women sharing their own experiences. Christina Reynolds, who was an aide on Mrs. Clinton’s campaign and is now a spokeswoman for EMILY’s List, which supports female Democratic candidates who back abortion rights, said the Warren campaign’s move to solicit stories from people was a better response to the line of attack “than just saying, ‘No, it’s not true.’”

“I think it’s a really powerful thing that she’s done,” she said, “which is turn this into a learning opportunity for all of us as to what women have faced at past times, what they might still face and how can we do better.”

...Ms. Warren’s campaign demonstrated readiness for the attacks as news outlets began publishing articles in recent days about her public-school teaching career and pregnancy. Ms. Warren spoke with CBS News to go into greater detail about her story, and she and her campaign sought to shift the focus onto the broader issue of pregnancy discrimination. Her admirers praised her on social media and others offered support, including some rivals in the 2020 race, a sign of the protectiveness that many Democrats feel toward their candidates in the face of Republican attacks.

Jennifer Palmieri, who was the communications director for Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 campaign, noted the extent of that unity around Ms. Warren. “This could have been something that really got pounced on by her opponents,” she said, “and that didn’t happen.”

More at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/us/politics/elizabeth-warren-fired-teaching.html#click=https://t.co/QBgcDGD7py

[riversedge]

1. Warren is a smart woman and Trump fears her.

[at140]

2. Agree! I can just imagine the debate between Trump & Warren

with huge audience of Americans watching. She is like 10 times more eloquent than Trump.
She will run circles around a crude & rude Trump.

[BlueMTexpat]

3. If she is the nominee

and MF45 is STILL in office (I wish very much for the 1st to come to pass, but NOT for the 2nd), I doubt whether he will show up for any debates.

If she is and if he is and if he shows, I hope that debate moderators will put a leash on him so that he can't LOOM.

He is a disgusting piece of or protoplasm - in every respect.