Donald Trump doesn’t seem to feel like he can take on Sen. Elizabeth Warren on the issues, but that’s okay—he’s more comfortable going with racism and sexism, anyway. During his rambling, hate-filled speech at Thursday night’s rally, Trump again brought up the issue of Warren’s Native American heritage, saying that if she runs for president and the two debate in 2020, he would throw a DNA testing kit at her.
“We have to do it gently,” he said. “Because we’re in the #MeToo generation, so we have be very gentle. And we will very gently take that kit, and we will slowly toss it, hoping it doesn't hit her and injure her arm, even though it only weighs probably two ounces.” Because that’s what #MeToo is about: women having small objects tossed at them. If men could throw their penises, maybe so, but as that’s a physical impossibility for most, the issues are a little different. Way to minimize sexual assault, though, Donald! Though to be fair, on Thursday he also dismissed sexual abuse of young men, supporting Rep. Jim Jordan as he denies having known about sexual abuse by a team doctor when he was a college wrestling coach.
But the mention of DNA testing gave Warren an opening big enough to drive a freight train through:
That’s how you do it—Warren didn’t get defensive on her own behalf (though she could have pointed out that not only her brothers but a second cousin she never met have said they heard the same family background she did growing up). Instead, she took the DNA testing that’s in the news, perhaps the very same DNA testing that made Trump think of using it as an attack on her, and walloped him with it. Trump came for her with racism and sexism and minimizing sexual assault and she spun his own words back to confront him with the reality of traumatized children, separated families, and his administration’s incompetence.