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Congressman Neal Calls Trump's Jab At Warren 'Beyond the Pale'

Congressman Richard Neal in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Nancy Eve Cohen
/
NEPR
Congressman Richard Neal in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Springfield Congressman Richard Neal is responding to President Trump's jab Thursday at Massachusetts U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren. Trump brought up Warren's claim of Native American ancestry and challenged her to take a DNA test. 

The president said he would give a million dollars to Warren's favorite charity if a test shows "you're an Indian."

Neal said he doesn't understand that kind of a request.

"The idea that a president, any president, would ask a sitting United States Senator for a DNA sample is beyond the pale," Neal said. "Are our politics shrunk to that point where now we would be asked to submit to a DNA test? She has repeatedly noted it is about the lore in her family, passed on from her mom."

In a tweet to the president, Warren wrote, "While you obsess over my genes, your administration is separating migrant children from their families."

At a campaign-style rally in Montana, Trump told the crowd he could imagine a debate with Warren where he would "gently" toss a DNA testing kit at her. He noted that he had to toss it gently because "we are in the 'Me Too' generation, so we have to be very gentle."

Nancy Eve Cohen is a senior reporter focusing on Berkshire County. Earlier in her career she was NPR’s Midwest editor in Washington, D.C., managing editor of the Northeast Environmental Hub and recorded sound for TV networks on global assignments, including the war in Sarajevo and an interview with Fidel Castro.
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