Warren opponent: ‘Only a real Indian can defeat a fake Indian’

A Republican Senate candidate in Massachusetts on Wednesday poked at incumbent Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), remarking that “only a real Indian can defeat a fake Indian.”

Shiva Ayyadurai, an Indian-American who is running for the GOP Senate nomination in the state, made the remark on Fox Business’s “Varney & Co.” while discussing his bid.

“Well, I think only a real Indian can defeat a fake Indian,” Ayyadurai said.

The Republican candidate said he previously sent Warren a DNA test kit on her birthday and was “very sad” when she decided to return the gift.

{mosads}

“But I’m looking forward to going against Warren. You know, I know how these elites work. I know I can defeat her,” he said.

Other Republicans, including President Trump and former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), have mocked Warren over her past claims of Native-American ancestry.

The Washington Post fact checker declined to provide a rating of Trump’s attacks, sarcastically calling Warren “Pocahontas.”

In 2016, the Post noted that there is “no official documentation” of Warren’s claim to be of Native-American descent based on family stories she heard growing up and advised its readers “to look into it on their own and decide whether Trump’s attacks over Warren’s background have merit.”

Ayyadurai has focused his run for Senate around Warren’s claim to Native-American ancestry, including the tagline “Defeat #FakeIndian Elizabeth Warren” on his campaign website.