WOLFEBORO, New Hampshire — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) told a crowded house party on Wednesday evening that President Donald Trump is deliberately dividing Americans to hide corruption in Washington.
Warren was addressing an audience of several hundred supporters of her presidential campaign who had gathered on a warm summer evening in a large back yard a stone’s throw away from Lake Winnipesaukee. It was her second town hall meeting of the day, after an earlier event in the town of Franconia, in the White Mountains.
During the question-and-answer session, Warren was asked what she would do as president to unify the country.
She gave a long response, during which she said:
Look, Trump has a message. He says if there’s something that’s bad in your life, something that’s not working for you — you’re not making much money, you can’t cover your expenses, you’re worried about your kids — blame them. Blame people who aren’t the same color as you. Blame people who don’t sound like you. Blame people who weren’t born where you were born. Blame people who don’t worship like you. Blame them. And that is his message. That is it, at heart. And he thinks if he can stir up people against people, keep people fighting each other enough, then nobody will notice who’s actually picking their pockets. And that the folks at the top are just getting richer and richer and richer, just scraping more and more of the wealth for themselves.
Ultimately, Warren said, what would unify the country was success: “Here’s how I believe you heal the divide: you actually deliver on your promises.”
It was not clear which Trump statements, exactly, Warren was referencing. Earlier this week, former Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly tweeted that in his research for his forthcoming book on the president, he had never found an example of Trump referring to skin color in a pejorative manner.