Warren slams Repubs convention: "Did you hear any actual ideas?"

Warren accuses Trump of provoking race war — and Trump fights back

By Sarah Wheaton

Sen. Elizabeth Warren accused Donald Trump alternately of being a late-night huckster and a race-war instigator on Monday night at the Democratic National Convention — and Trump responded with some words of his own.

The Massachusetts Democrat engaged in a live version of her Twitter-needling of Trump’s character and manhood before a raucous audience at the Wells Fargo Center.

“What kind of a man acts like this?” Warren said. “What kind of a mans cheats students, cheats investors, cheats workers.”

She continued, ”I’ll tell you what kind of a man. A man who must never be president of the United States. Never.”

Warren warned of a “really ugly underside” to Trump’s campaign.

“Donald Trump’s America,” Warren said, is “an America of fear and hate. An America where we all break apart. Whites against Blacks and Latinos. Christians against Muslims and Jews. Straight against gay. Everyone against immigrants.”

It’s actually Democrat against Democrat inside the Wells Fargo Center, and Warren’s call to arms against Trump appeared to be largely successful at encouraging Democratic unity in Philadelphia.

Trump and his campaign then accused Warren of both personal and political hypocrisy in her embrace of Hillary Clinton.

"Elizabeth Warren, often referred to as Pocahontas, just misrepresented me and spoke glowingly about Crooked Hillary, who she always hated!" Trump tweeted after her speech, escalating his own psychodramatic feud with her.

"Warren complains about Wall Street influence while endorsing the candidate who is bought-and-paid for by Wall Street," said Trump senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, in a statement. "Bill and Hillary use Wall Street like a personal ATM, giving speeches and doing favors for cash. The income inequality in America today is the product of the Hillary Clinton corporate agenda on trade and immigration. Clinton is a radical corporatist, and Donald Trump is the one and only the only candidate taking on the special interests in government. Just follow the money flowing into the Clinton bank account -- and the money flowing against the people's champion, Mr. Trump."

Warren continued her attack on Trump with an implied comparison between Trump’s appeal to downscale white voters and the segregation that Martin Luther King fought against.

“Instead of higher wages for workers, Dr. King described how poor whites in the South were fed Jim Crow, which told a poor white worker that, quote, ‘no matter how bad off he was, at least he was a white man, better than the black man.’ Racial hatred was part of keeping the powerful on top,” she said.

“When we turn on each other, bankers can run our economy for Wall Street, oil companies can fight off clean energy, and giant corporations can ship the last good jobs overseas,” she continued. “When we turn on each other, we can’t unite to fight back against a rigged system.”

Trump has also contended that the system is rigged in his pitch to supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders — and leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee fueled his argument. But Warren, who shares Sanders’ progressive base, has been using her clout among that group to keep disaffected liberals in the fold. They appeared largely receptive to her message — despite a pointed interruption from one section of the arena, chants of “We trusted you.”

Warren’s refrain was “We’re with her,” as she ticked off reasons to vote for Clinton, in measured tones that contrasted with the yelling of earlier speakers. But the crowd appeared most receptive to her acerbic anti-Trump message, which included derision of his “stupid wall… which will never get built.”

Other than that, she asked the crowd, “Did you hear any actual ideas?”

In unison, the arena echoed, “No!”

Miller, the Trump adviser, responded by listing the "wonderful Americans" killed by illegal immigrants who would "still be alive today" if the wall had been built years ago.

"Thousands would never have been victimized by cartels, traffickers and smugglers. Millions of young minority workers would have jobs. Why aren't these voiceless victims worthy of Warren's concern?"

Warren compared Trump's entire campaign to a late-night infomercial.

“The Trump hot air machine reveals all the answers,” she said mockingly. “For one low, low price, he’ll even throw in an goofy hat.”

She added, “I’ve got news for Donald Trump. The American people are not falling for it.”