Sen. Elizabeth Warren defended her story that she was fired from her first teaching job in 1971, despite a 2007 interview and official records contradicting her claim.
“When I was 22 and finishing my first year of teaching, I had an experience millions of women will recognize. By June I was visibly pregnant—and the principal told me the job I’d already been promised for the next year would go to someone else,” the Massachusetts Democrat said Tuesday on Twitter. “This was 1971, years before Congress outlawed pregnancy discrimination—but we know it still happens in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. We can fight back by telling our stories. I tell mine on the campaign trail, and I hope to hear yours.”
This was 1971, years before Congress outlawed pregnancy discrimination—but we know it still happens in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. We can fight back by telling our stories. I tell mine on the campaign trail, and I hope to hear yours.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 8, 2019
Warren, 70, also stated in a CBS News interview Monday night, “All I know is I was 22 years old, I was 6 months pregnant, and the job that I had been promised for the next year was going to someone else. The principal said they were going to hire someone else for my job.”
The Democratic presidential contender has said repeatedly on the campaign trail that she was fired after her first year of teaching for being pregnant.
“By the end of the first year, I was visibly pregnant, and the principal did what principals did in those days: wish me luck and hire someone else for the job,” she said at a recent town hall.
However, county records from her time as a teacher in New Jersey contradict that claim, indicating she resigned her position, which was “accepted with regret.”
Additionally, Warren herself told a different story in 2007, saying in an interview that she had quit rather than being fired from the teaching position.
“And my first year post-graduation, I worked — it was in a public school system, but I worked with the children with disabilities. And I did that for a year, and then that summer, I actually didn’t have the education courses, so I was on an ’emergency certificate,’ it was called,” she said at the time. “And I went back to graduate school and took a couple of courses in education and said, ‘I don’t think this is going to work out for me.’ And I was pregnant with my first baby, so I had a baby and stayed home for a couple of years, and I was really casting about, thinking, ‘What am I going to do?’”
Warren has been accused of making fraudulent claims before, including her assertion that she is of Native American ancestry. She was later forced to apologize to the Cherokee nation after she took a DNA test showing she was only 1/64th to 1/1,024th Native American.
President Trump has used the senator’s claims to mock her, giving her the nickname “Pocahontas.” On Monday night, he retweeted an article showing Warren resigned from her teaching position.
