Elizabeth Warren trashes Trump as a "small, insecure money-grubber"
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, trashed Donald Trump Tuesday night, calling him a "small, insecure money-grubber" in light of his recently resurfaced comments where he "hoped" for a housing market crash.
"Donald Trump was drooling over the idea of a housing meltdown - because it meant he could buy up more property on the cheap," Warren said Tuesday in Washington at a Center for Popular Democracy gala. "What kind of a man does that? What kind of a man roots for people to get thrown out of their house? What kind of man roots for people to get thrown out of their jobs?"
"I'll tell you exactly what kind of a man does that: It is a man who cares about no one but himself," she went on. "A small, insecure money-grubber who doesn't care who gets hurt, so long as he makes a profit off it."
"What kind of man does that?" Warren asked once more. "A man who will never be President of the United States."
Warren, a progressive icon known for her efforts to curb Wall Street power, was referring to Trump's comments from 2006, when he remarked on a real estate "bubble burst." He said at the time, "I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy" property. He also said he would "make a lot of money" in such a crash.
Trump defended those statements at a Tuesday rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico, saying that he was being "a businessman."
"That's what I'm supposed to do," Trump said. "I feel badly for everybody. What am I going to do? I'm in business." Trump also disparaged Warren as a "total failure" and repeatedly called her "Pocahontas," referencing her inability to prove her claimed Native American heritage.
Later at the gala, Warren also charged Trump with "kissing the fannies of poor, misunderstood Wall Street bankers," now that he has entered the general election.
Warren's attacks come just as Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton has bashed Trump over the same issues.
"He actually said he was hoping for the crash that caused hard working families in California and across America to lose their homes," Clinton said at a rally with union members in Commerce, California. "All because he thought he could take advantage of it to make some money for himself."