Dem senator slams Trump’s ‘moral authority’ after ‘Pocahontas’ remark

The top Democrat on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee slammed President Trump for referring to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as “Pocahontas” during an event honoring Navajo Code Talkers who served in World War II. 

“Donald Trump’s racist joke ­during Native American Heritage Month no less ­demeaned the contributions that the Code Talkers and countless other Native American patriots and citizens have made to our great country,” Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) said in a statement on Monday.

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“The days when the President of the United States was held as a moral authority around the world were over 11 months ago, but at what should have been a solemn ceremony to honor Native veterans, Donald Trump took low even lower,” he added.

Udall said the president’s remark about Warren in the Oval Office will not take away from the Code Talkers’ WWII accomplishments.

“This moment in history won’t overshadow the contribution the Code Talkers made and continue to make to our nation,” he added, slamming the comments for being in “poor taste against the backdrop of Andrew Jackson’s portrait.”

Udall’s remarks come after Trump made the comment that many have criticized as “insensitive.”

“You were here long before any of us were here,” Trump said while standing next to three Navajo veterans who helped the U.S. Marine Corps develop a secret code during the war.

“Although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas,” he added.

Trump has repeatedly and publicly used the nickname to make jabs at Warren’s claim of Native American heritage.

“This was supposed to be an event to honor heroes, people who put it all on the line for our country,” Warren said in response to his remarks on MSNBC. “It is deeply unfortunate that the president of the United States can’t even make it through a ceremony honoring these heroes without throwing out a racial slur.”

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended the president’s remark, saying that it was not a racial slur and that “what most people find offensive is Sen. Warren lying about her heritage to advance her career.”