Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., responded to recent attacks by presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans over her claims to American Indian ancestry on the show "The View" Tuesday, saying: "What this is really about is can they bully me into shutting up,"
ABC News reports.
Warren, who ABC confirmed is among those
being vetted as a possible running mate for presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, has faced ridicule over her claims of having Cherokee heritage. Then-Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, a Republican, sought to use the issue against her in his 2012 re-election campaign, to no avail as she unseated him.
"Donald Trump will say and do anything. So will Scott Brown. Unlike most people, my brothers and I learned who we are from our families," Warren said. "And the people who have hired me for my jobs, the work I've done, have all said that my background didn't have anything to do with it. They mostly didn't know about it."
Brown recently called for Warren to take a DNA test to prove that she is 1/32 Cherokee as she has claimed, according to
The Washington Times.
"As we all know, she's not Native American," Brown said, according to the Times. "She's not 1/32. She has no Native American background except for what her family told her.
"The easy answer on that, as you all know, is that Harvard [University] and [University of Pennsylvania] can release the records. She can authorize the release of those records. She can take a DNA test. She can release the records herself. There's never been any effort."
Trump has repeatedly called Warren "Pocahontas" and "The Indian" in a derisive manner. Although his surrogate, former "Apprentice" candidate Erin Elmore, who also claims American Indian ancestry, appeared on MSNBC claiming that Trump's nicknames for Warren may serve as "a compliment,"
The Huffington Post reported.