With a mere 673 days until the 2020 US presidential election, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren has announced the formation of an “exploratory committee” to consider a run for the highest office in the land.
In American politics jargon, this means the Democratic senator is most definitely running for president. Warren had repeatedly been named as a possible 2020 candidate since 2016 and even earlier, so her candidacy has come as no surprise to pundits.
But as ever, Twitter was there to react to Warren’s early announcement, which she made with an accompanying video laying out her 2020 vision.
For conservatives, much of the response was comedic and dismissive, with some referring to Warren as “Pocahontas” — the nickname US President Donald Trump uses for the senator due to her claims of Native American ancestry. Warren took a DNA test earlier this year to prove the link, but the Cherokee Nation called the move “inappropriate and wrong.” Some also joked that they had “reservations” about Warren’s run.
Warren has been a leading voice on the left and for years has launched withering attacks on the US banking system, which made her a poster child of the progressive movement — but some aren’t buying the narrative that Warren is a progressive hero, particularly since she failed to endorse Bernie Sanders during the 2016 primaries.
Some on the left were also skeptical about Warren’s foreign policy positions. While she called out the “bloated” US defense budget in a recent speech and called for cuts, she did not vote against Trump’s massive increases in military spending when she had the chance.
Some thought Warren missed her chance in 2016...
...while others were simply happy at the news that a progressive had thrown her hat in the ring and doubted the naysayers for “underestimating” her chances.
And some just seemed exasperated at the thought of the 2020 campaign season (and all that goes with it) beginning so early.
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