Special to WorldTribune.com
Is Sen. Elizabeth Warren a hypocrite? That’s the question I recently posed to the liberal Democrat outside of the WRKO studio.
Her response was telling: Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. In other words, I touched a very raw nerve.
First, let me explain about the confrontation that took place. Warren—who I refer to as Chief Spreading Bull—was in studio being interviewed for a pre-taped veterans show. I was in my office, and someone mentioned to me that the Chief was actually at WRKO.
I went over and checked and to my pleasant surprise, there she was. After about two minutes, her interview was over. She walked into the narrow hall outside of the studio. I walked up and asked if I could get a picture with her. She graciously said yes. I then inquired whether I could ask her one question. Again, she said yes.
So I posed the one question no one in the media has dared to ask: Since Warren constantly rails against the “one-percent,” but lives in a mansion in Cambridge and is a multimillionaire — in other words, she is a part of and lives like the “one-percent” — is she not a hypocrite?
The Chief was thunderstruck. Her face turned red; her body began to shake; and in anger, jabbing her finger in the air at me, she lashed out in self-righteous indignation. She mentioned her humble origins, her poor “mommy” and “daddy,” her three brothers who served in the military, her desire to become a “special needs teacher,” and her decision to go to “commuter” college and state law school. All of this was not only boilerplate. It was irrelevant.
She was embarrassed by the issue — and it showed. Ultimately, her answer boiled down to this: She was given “equality of opportunity” through Big Government programs, and she wants the same for all Americans. Then, she simply ran off.
In short, she dodged my question. And the reason is simple: She is a liar and a hypocrite. No amount of dissembling can change this. Warren’s left-wing progressivism is marked by class warfare, soak-the-rich redistribution of wealth and hatred for the so-called “one-percent.” She famously told a group of supporters in Andover, Massachusetts, that business owners and entrepreneurs weren’t responsible for their success. “You didn’t build that,” as then-President Obama later put it.
Warren champions economic collectivism and state socialism. Her philosophy can be distilled to one seminal idea: Capitalism is evil. For Warren, the great injustice of our time is “crony capitalism” and a “rigged” economic system that favors the wealthy few over the “ninety-nine” percent. She brags about being the intellectual founder of the Occupy Wall Street movement — radical leftists who have engaged in violent street protests, destroying private property, damaging cars and businesses, assaulting police officers and calling for the outright confiscation of wealth.
Which begs the question: If Warren despises the rich so much, then why is she one of them? She is a typical socialist.
She preaches class hatred and the demonization of the rich, but lives — like the ruling Communists in Soviet Russia, Cuba or Venezuela — in opulent splendor. In fact, the Chief is the embodiment of the “one-percent” and crony capitalism.
Take her lifestyle. She lives in a 3,728-square foot, three-and-a-half bathroom mansion in Cambridge. It is worth well over $2 million. She has owned luxury cars, from BMWs to high-end SUVs.
Her total assets are valued to be way above $10 million. She is easily a multi-millionaire. Hence, if being wealthy is so bad, then she should hand over her millions to the poor.
Moreover, Warren attained her money fraudulently and unethically. The liberal media refuses to expose her shady past. In particular, she was a house-flipper. Her scheme was to buy low and sell high, according to reports in the Boston Herald. Warren would target semi-senile old ladies, convince them to sell their properties at bargain prices and then flip them for a huge profit. She engaged in exploitation and naked speculation.
Also, she conned her way into becoming a tenured law professor. Her ancestors claimed on the Census that they were white, and Warren never — not once — was enrolled as a member of any Native American tribe. No matter. When she applied to teach at law schools, knowing they were under intense pressure to hire minorities, she checked herself off as a Cherokee Indian.
In other words, she lied. At Harvard, she was paid $350,000 to teach one course. And most conveniently, after she received tenure, she switched from being a Native American to being white. The Chief could not be more cynical or craven.
She has also lined her pockets by being a “consultant” for big insurance companies and the big banks. Travelers insurance company paid her $212,000 between 2008 and 2010 to do consulting on asbestos litigation. She was paid massive sums by the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr to help the needs of their clients, such as Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.
Warren’s anti-Wall Street, anti-big business rhetoric may play well with her leftist supporters, but she loves raking in the corporate cash.
She is a crony capitalist masquerading as a principled progressive. Look no further than her support for Hillary Clinton. Any serious anti-war liberal would have backed Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary race. He ran as a left-wing populist, who opposed corporate plutocracy and military interventionism. Instead, Warren declared herself to be neutral. She then aggressively campaigned for Hillary in the general election.
Whatever one thinks about Clinton, Wall Street owned her lock, stock and barrel. The Clinton Foundation was exhibit A not just in crony capitalism, but in bribery, influence peddling and the overwhelming power of special interests. The Clintons enriched themselves to the tune of over $250 million. Like no other major candidate in U.S. history, Hillary was the agent of big business and K Street lobbyists. Progressives had other options, such as the Green Party’s Jill Stein. Warren, however, did what she always does: Follow the money.
During her term, the Chief has done almost nothing for the people of Massachusetts. She’s written books, given speeches and augmented her national profile. But in terms of legislative accomplishments, Warren has achieved zero. What she has done is advance her self-interest — politically and financially. She seeks to use the Bay State as a springboard toward running for the presidency in 2020.
Warren is a fraud. She is a phony Indian, a phony progressive and a phony senator. This is why when I confronted her she panicked. Because deep down, she knows it.
Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at WorldTribune.com and the host of “The Kuhner Report” weekdays 12-3 pm EST on WRKO AM-680 in Boston.
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