Warren urges resistance

Warren urges resistance, sidesteps 2020 talk at California event

By CARLA MARINUCCI

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren delivered a fiery call to political action to hundreds of women activists in San Francisco, urging progressives to invest their energy in resisting the Trump administration.

The Democrat also sidestepped talk of a potential bid for president in 2020, saying when asked if she would make the race: “No," she said, adding, "I’m running for Senate in 2018.”

Warren’s response came to a question from MSNBC host Joy Ann Reid who pressed Warren about her plans for 2020 at a day-long “Joyous Persistence” conference for women activists — a conference named, in part for Warren.

Warren was greeted with cheers and a standing ovation at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts where she told activists to focus not just on the future but more immediate issues. “We cannot be spending our energy” looking so far into the future as 2020, she said.

When Warren’s answer about the White House run drew moans from the activist crowd, the Massachusetts Senator launched into an impassioned call for action from the sold-out crowd who paid upwards of $125 to be part of an event that combined art, poetry and politicians and included California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“I don’t want anybody to doubt….I get how important today is,’’ said Warren. “I get how important tomorrow is.”

“I get how much damage Donald Trump, and Republican Senate and a Republican House have done to this country every single day,’’ she said. “Democracy has to make its voice heard. People in this room have to make their voices heard – right now. We have to be in the fight every single day.”

Warren’s comments came at the close of a seminar organized by Susie Tompkins Buell, one of the country’s most generous Democratic donors and a longtime friend of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The “Joyous Persistence” conference in one of the nation’s liberal bastions underscored Warren’s continued appeal to women activists who have been energized to action in the era of Trump — organizing not only to march, but to get out votes and run for office.

The name of the gathering was inspired in part by GOP Senate Majority Mitch McConnell’s rebuke of Warren earlier this year. McConnell moved to silence Warren in the Senate after “she persisted” in a speech in opposition to the nomination of then-Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General.

McConnell declared Warren had broke Senate decorum saying: “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted” — became an instant meme on the left.” “Neverthless, she persisted,” soon became a liberal rallying cry.

Thursday’s seminar drew an enthusiastic crowd of women, many dressed in the color pink to signal resistance to Trump, and who snapped up tee-shirts, some with the likeness of Hillary Clinton.

Clinton addressed the gathering by video, and said their presence underscored a “determination to advance the vision that nearly 66 million Americans for last November.”

Warren also addressed Trump’s decision Thursday to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate accord, announced from the White House Rose garden, as a critical energizer for action heading toward the 2018 elections.

“It’s one more reason we must all be in the fight,’’ Warren told them. “This is one more reason we’ve got to be effective, we have got to be focused and we’ve got to make change in Washington…the Republicans have been framing this for a long time, jobs versus the environment,’’ she said. “It is not. This is really about big donors to the Republican party.”

Warren said the decision was “symptomatic of what’s wrong in Washington,’’ adding that “America used to be a country that filtered things through the lens of, “does it help working families..?”

“Today, we have a government … that works just great for a thin slice at the top,’’ she said. “Which works just great if you can hire an army of lawyers.”

Many of those in the audience expressed admiration for Warren’s role as high profile fighter against Trump — and as a woman who has stood up against Senate Leaders like McConnell.

“She’s very powerful and she can lead, and she can fight,’’ said one attendee, Merle Goldstone, as she watched the Senator. “She knows what her role is, and that she has a job to do.”

But others suggested that as powerful as her voice has been, Warren – at age 67 – may not represent the party’s future heading toward 2020.

“She’s an older white woman, like Hillary Clinton,’’ said Judy Strebel of San Francisco. Her role is more “to fight in the Senate” than to be the party’s next nominee, she said.

Many in the crowd said they welcomed efforts by Democratic activists like Buell and Warren to channel the energy shown in Women’s Marches around the country in the wake of the November election.

“It’s still hard to believe that it’s only been a few months when the world as we knew it lurched unpredictability,’’ said Eleni Tsakopolous Kounalakis, a Democratic candidate who hopes to become California’s first female Lt. Governor. “For me, I felt our beautiful country had elected the worst possible person ever to hold the most important office in the world.”

Organizer Buell said the crowd had Donald Trump to thank for one thing — his ability to bring women and leaders like Warren together as activists.

“There’s a purpose for everyone now, and it’s a joyous purpose,’’ Buell told them, adding that with new leaders and new energy, the country will turn a corner with “hope..and new life.”