Warren Acts Tough, but Can't Even Get Her Own Super PAC to Listen to Her
Sen. Elizabeth Warren has built a presidential campaign by promising to confront corruption, cronyism and big money in politics.
When it comes to acting on these promises, there’s a major problem.
She can’t even get her own super PAC to listen to her.
The humiliating turn of events came about one year after Warren reneged on a pledge to not “take a dime of PAC money in this campaign.”
Let’s be clear: I won’t take a dime of PAC money in this campaign. I won’t take a single check from a federal lobbyist, or billionaires who want to run a Super PAC on my behalf.
And I challenge every other candidate who asks for your vote in this primary to do the same.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) February 9, 2019
Instead of not taking a single dime, Warren benefited from over $14 million in spending from Persist PAC 2020, a group dedicated to catapulting the Massachusetts senator to the White House.
According to Politico, a large chunk of the PAC’s expenditures were for pro-Warren ads now running in states slated to vote on Super Tuesday.
The importance of the states’ votes is seemingly not lost on Warren, whose campaign stands to collapse if handed a Tuesday defeat.
Despite the make-or-break moment for the Warren campaign, critics and even fans of the senator are not happy with her reversal on big money in politics.
Warren appears to have a compromise — she now wants Persist PAC to reveal its donors before voting begins on Super Tuesday, more than two weeks earlier than the Federal Election Commission’s disclosure requirement.
Campaign communication director Kristen Orthman told CNN that Warren “believes Persist PAC and all other super PACs should disclose their donors before Super Tuesday.”
Persist PAC disagrees.
“We are not putting out donors outside the mandatory deadlines,” Persist PAC spokesman Joshua Karp told CNN, confirming the group would wait until the FEC’s March 20 deadline.
For Warren, who once challenged her fellow candidates to “put your money where your mouth is and say no to the PACs,” a refusal to stand up to a PAC is indefensible.
As the crowds turn out to vote Tuesday, this could be the lie that finally kills Elizabeth Warren’s campaign.
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