Poor Elizabeth Warren. When she dropped out of the 2020 race for the Democratic presidential nomination this week, she didn’t know that she was killing the chance of a female president “in our lifetimes.”
The Massachusetts Democrat, who was once the frontrunner for the nomination but plunged in the polls after the debates, sat down with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Thursday to talk about her imploded campaign. Maddow waxed poetic about the greater significance of Warren’s departure from the race.
“I’d like to ask you about the elephant in the room, which is a conversation you’ve had a number of ways and you talked about it eloquently today… I think that a lot of women around the country right now feel differently about you dropping out,” Maddow opened.
“You leaving the race feels different. If Hillary Clinton can’t win when she gets the nomination and you can’t get the nomination and neither can Kamala Harris, and neither can Amy Klobuchar, and neither can Kirsten Gillibrand. I mean, I think part of what’s going on today is women around the country are like, ‘OK, honestly!’ If it’s not going to be any of them, let’s get real. Is it just that it can’t be any woman ever?’ Are we just going to run, you know, white men in their late 70s against each other, both parties and that’s all we can agree to do?”
But wait, Maddow had even more to say.
“I think there’s a feeling that your campaign ending is very specific to you and it also feels a little bit like a death knell in terms of the prospects of having a woman president in our lifetimes,” Maddow said.
Warren gasped, saying, “Oh God, please no. That can’t be right.”
“You know what I’m talking about,” Maddow said.
“I know exactly what you’re talking about” Warren said. “This cannot be the right answer.”
Warren failed to win a single state on Super Tuesday and came in third in her own home state. In dropping out, Warren said she could no longer see a clear path forward to the nomination (ya’ think?).
Asked Thursday by a reporter at a press conference about the fact that Democratic voters are now “left with two white men to decide between” — Sen. Bernie Sanders, 78, a socialist from Vermont, and former vice president Joe Biden, 77 — Warren said that is what she will agonize over the most.
“One of the hardest parts of this,” Warren said, her voice choking with emotion, “is all those pinky promises and all those little girls who are going to have to wait four more years.”
“That’s going to be hard,” she said.
Back to Maddow. She had one more lengthy speech to make.
“I’m 46. I am a professional. I live in New England. I have an advanced degree. You have a lot of people who have a lot of different stripes support you around the country but, like, I’m your stripe,” Maddow said to Warren. “Like, my marching orders is your bullseye. And as such, I have been hearing all day today from people who I know … women who are just bereft. They’re telling me they can’t get off the couch. And these are not people who were working on your campaign or people who are particularly involved in politics, but there is something about your fight and your qualifications and your qualifications indeed in comparison to the people who are still in… it was inspiring and now it feels crushing.”
President Trump was asked if sexism was a factor in Warren being forced to pull out of the race and whether he believes he will see a female president in his lifetime.
“No, I think lack of talent was her problem. She had a tremendous lack of talent. She was a good debater, she destroyed Mike Bloomberg very quickly, like it was nothing, that was easy for her. But people don’t like her. She’s a very mean person and people don’t like her. People don’t want that. They like a person like me, that’s not mean,” Trump said.
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