Donald Trump knocked Ted Cruz out of the race for the Republican nomination Tuesday, and what happens next is a “real test of character” for the nation, said Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday. Though Warren, a Democrat, has yet to endorse a presidential candidate, she said her mission now is to make sure Trump’s “toxic stew of hatred and insecurity” never makes its way to the White House.
“Donald Trump is now the leader of the Republican Party. It’s real – he is one step away from the White House,” Warren posted to social media late Tuesday evening after Trump won the Indiana primary and Cruz, Trump’s nearest rival, announced he was ending his campaign.
Warren, who has repeatedly criticized the controversial billionaire businessman over the course of the election, said Trump has built his campaign on “racism, sexism, and xenophobia.” “There’s more enthusiasm for him among leaders of the KKK than leaders of the political party he now controls,” she said, referring to statements of encouragement from the Imperial Wizard of the Rebel Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Richmond, Va., and former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke.
“He incites supporters to violence, praises [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, and, according to a columnist who recently interviewed him, is ‘cool with being called an authoritarian’ and doesn’t mind associations with history’s worst dictators,” Warren continued.
“He attacks veterans like John McCain who were captured and puts our servicemembers at risk by cheerleading illegal torture,” Warren said. “In a world with ISIS militants and leaders like North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Un conducting nuclear tests, he surrounds himself with a foreign policy team that has been called a ‘collection of charlatans,’ and puts out contradictory and nonsensical national security ideas one expert recently called ‘incoherent’ and ‘truly bizarre.'”
“What happens next will test the character for all of us – Republican, Democrat, and Independent. It will determine whether we move forward as one nation or splinter at the hands of one man’s narcissism and divisiveness,” Warren said. “I know which side I’m on, and I’m going to fight my heart out to make sure Donald Trump’s toxic stew of hatred and insecurity never reaches the White House.”
