The Daily - The Field: What Happened to Elizabeth Warren?

Episode Date: March 10, 2020

Today, millions of voters across six states will cast their ballots for the two viable Democratic candidates left: former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Bernie Sanders. What began as a contest with historic diversity of race, gender and sexual orientation has come down to two heterosexual white men over 70.Astead W. Herndon, who covered Senator Senator Elizabeth Warren for The New York Times, asks: How did we get here? With Austin Mitchell and Jessica Cheung, producers for “The Daily,” Mr. Herndon traveled to Massachusetts to find out. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background reading: Ms. Warren’s position as one of the top-polling candidates early in the race made her a target for attack. Some say the personal criticism she weathered, especially from Mr. Biden, was sexist.She began her campaign with an avalanche of progressive policy proposals, but dropped out after failing to attract a broader political coalition in a Democratic Party increasingly, if not singularly, focused on defeating President Trump.

Hello. Hello. Hey, how are you? Buddy. Yikes, what a day already. Yeah, what do you mean when you say what a day already? Well, we just reported that Elizabeth Warren is dropping out the presidential race. We're here in Boston outside of her house, not in Boston, actually Cambridge,

waiting for her to speak to a horde of media, both local and national. I understand that, but I was here before all you guys. You just jumped in front of me. From the New York Times, this is The Field. I'm Ested Herndon in Massachusetts. Around 12.30 on Thursday, Senator Elizabeth Warren came out of a side door of her house with her husband and her golden retriever

and addressed the media. All right. So I announced this morning that I am suspending my campaign for president. I say this with a deep sense of gratitude. It's been two days since Super Tuesday, where Elizabeth Warren's best finish was in third place, including in her home state of Massachusetts. That put her behind her campaign's already lowered expectations

and made a gathering like today feel almost inevitable. She thanks her supporters and her staff and takes questions. Will you be making an endorsement today? We know that you spoke with both Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders yesterday. Not today. Not today. I need some space around this. And when it comes to why she has to drop out? You know, I was told at the beginning of this whole undertaking that there are two lanes.

A progressive lane that Bernie Sanders is the incumbent for and a moderate lane that Joe Biden is the incumbent for. And there's no room for anyone else in this. I thought that wasn't right, but evidently I was wrong. And on the question of gender? And I wonder what your message would be to the women and girls who feel like

we're left with two white men to decide between. I know. One of the hardest parts of this is all those little girls who are going to have to wait four more years. That's going to be hard. She gets emotional, but there are clearly things that she's left unsaid. But when you ask her supporters who have come to the House to watch this speech, they go there. Oh, I'm so sad. Yesterday I was so sad. I couldn't move. I'm frustrated. I'm disappointed and sad. I'm heartbroken that the very clearly most qualified candidate is out of the race.

Sadly, too many people in this country aren't ready for a woman president, which is an unfortunate thing. Very disappointed, but I guess there's never going to be a time for a woman. She's my generation, and we're not going to see it now. This was our... It's not going to happen. Grandma, Grandma, they want to go.

Maybe her generation. All right, we we got to go. Look at this little girl looking at the dog. Today, millions of voters across six states will cast their ballot for the two viable Democratic candidates left, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. And what began as a contest with historic diversity along racial and gender lines has now come down to two men, 70 plus, both white. And as someone who covered Senator Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, and with Warren especially, who once led in national polling, I'm left to wonder, how did we get here? How did it end up this way? Wow.

Oh, those are one of the fancy doorbells where you can, like, look at it with your phone. Hello, how are you? Hello, potty! Hi, my name's Ested. I'm a politics reporter at the time. Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Lynn. What did you say your name is? Ested. Ested.

Yes. Hi. So the next day, me and producers Austin Mitchell and Jessica Chung go to North Andover, Massachusetts. Good to meet you. Yes, should we take our shoes off? Oh, you don't have to. No, it's fine. Are you sure? To meet with a pretty typical Warren supporter, Lynn Litradella.

I only have one sock on. It's fine. I only have one sock on. How does that happen? Her husband Tom is there too. Tom, will you pour the water, please? Yeah. I knew there was a roll for me somewhere.

And her cousin Kathleen. Let me take your coat. And we all sit down in their living room. What do you do? I am a nurse, but I teach exercise now. Oh, very nice. What? Give me, what exercise? Well, I teach a class that's about the first half is aerobic, and then there's some stretching and strength training. It's about an hour class at the Senior Center in Lawrence.

Awesome. How long have you been in North Andover? Since 1949. And when did you first notice Senator Warren? I noticed Senator Warren years ago. I think it was around 2012. I happened to be reading the paper one morning, and I noticed that a congressman named Todd Akin had said a horrible thing about women and pregnancy,

saying that if a woman were to get pregnant as a result of rape, then her body has a way of getting rid of that. It seems to me, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, that's really rare. If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. And my eyes just flew open and I said, oh my God, this man is in our Congress. I was flabbergasted and I said to my husband, who is that woman? There was, at the same time, I was not happy with Scott Brown, who was our senator at the time. He doesn't stand up for women's reproductive rights and economic security.

He co-sponsored legislation to let employers deny women coverage for birth control or even mammograms. And I said, who's that woman that's going to run against Scott Brown? I heard that a woman is going to run against Scott Brown. I'm Elizabeth Warren. I'm running for the United States Senate. And before you hear a bunch of ridiculous attack ads, I want to tell you who I am. Like a lot of you, I came up the hard way. And I said, I have to do something to help her get elected. But Washington is still rigged for the big guys, and that's got to change. I'm Elizabeth Warren, and I approve this message because I want

Massachusetts families to have a level playing field. And so Lynn becomes a volunteer for the Warren Senate campaign. I was always on board with Elizabeth right after that. Why do you think you felt so drawn to Elizabeth Warren? Because in many ways, she's me. She's me. She has the same feelings that I have. She's actually very close to my age. She has a wonderful way of kind of looking into your heart and mind.

She's interested in you. She's interested in the people. Hi, I'm Elizabeth Warren. It's very nice to see you. I'm going to vote for you. Wonderful! Say that again! Fabulous! We're here for the chicken. They still have one for you?

Good to see you. I like your shirt. Very handsome. Elizabeth has that heart. And she's brilliant. And despite the odds, you elected the first woman senator to the state of Massachusetts. How did it feel? I mean, she wins the race, obviously. How did that feel? Oh, my God. It was so exciting. I still can't say that without crying. It was so exciting.

So then, in 2016... Well, I was for Hillary. Hillary, I was very invested in having Hillary be president. She had all the qualifications. She was more qualified than anybody who's ever been president, in my opinion. But because she was a woman, I knew it would be difficult. But I still thought she could win. Did you know people or did you hear people say, I won't vote for Clinton because she's a woman?

Not like that. But here's what I did here. I was talking to a woman who was kind of a stranger, but we were chatting and we were talking about politics and about how we feel about certain things. So I guess it was like immigration, climate change and things like that. And this woman was on board with all of the democratic ideals. And then I mentioned Hillary Clinton, and she said, oh, I hate her. And I said, really? Because she's the one who stands for all of these things that we're talking about. No, no, I can't stand her. I said, well, why don't you like her? Oh, I have no idea. I said, is it because she's an aggressive woman? Is she too aggressive?

Is she too loud? Does she express herself too much? And her reply was, no, I don't know why. So like a minute later, I mentioned Elizabeth Warren. She said, oh, I can't stand her either. So I was like, she agrees with you about everything. All the things that you're saying you believe in, she is promoting. No, well, I can't stand her.

So I know. I mean, I've been a woman my whole life. So I know very well that that is the reason. Even women will vote against women because they're women. There are people out there who have this idea that you're not trustworthy, that they don't like you for some reason. What is that about, in your opinion? like you for some reason. What is that about, in your opinion?

You know, Joy, obviously I've thought a lot about it because I don't like to hear it, so I need to figure out what's behind it. You know, I am perhaps a more serious person, a more reserved person, than is kind of in the public arena these days. So I think people then say, well, you know, she's serious, she's reserved. Can I really like her?

But what is inauthentic? What's inauthentic? I don't understand that. I don't understand that. Because I've been pretty much the same person my entire life, for better or worse, right? Clinton losing made a difference. Clinton losing did make it harder for me to think that a woman could win. So this year, when Elizabeth Warren announces that she's running, Lynn has mixed feelings. I love that people were getting to know her all across the country. Hi.

Hi, my name's Raelynn. Hi, Raelynn. I was wondering if there was ever a time in your life where somebody you really looked up to maybe didn't accept you as much? And how you dealt with that? Yeah. My mother and I had very different views of how to build a future. She wanted me to marry well. And I really tried.

And it just didn't work out. But I also knew it was the right thing to do. And sometimes you just thing to do. And sometimes you just got to do what's right. And sign. You got to take care of yourself first and do this. Give me a hug. And it was a pleasure for me to see that,

although I was a little bit, you know, worried. In the wake of her third place finish in Iowa and fourth place finish in New Hampshire, Warren said, my job is to persist. But persisting and winning are two very different things. Senator Elizabeth Warren, she came in fifth place in South Carolina. Senator Elizabeth Warren trailing in fourth place in Nevada. I think the biggest question that Elizabeth Warren has to answer is where does she win? Lynn voted early in Massachusetts for Senator Warren. But in the days leading up to Super Tuesday, she's questioning her vote and wondering if she did the right thing. But I didn't feel, I didn't feel bad that I had already voted for her at all because, you know, like she said, vote with your heart, and she was my heart.

Did you know anyone personally in your life who were forewarned and then jumped ship? Yes, my cousin Kathleen. Raising her hand. Yes. Actually, as soon as Buttigieg and Klobuchar backed Biden, and I was kind of waiting to see how it all kind of shook out a little bit, I voted for Biden because we have to stop Sanders, in my opinion. But I would have voted for Warren because I voted for Hillary.

As Kathleen is talking, Tom nods and raises his hand. Did you raise your hand too? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, actually, it's the sole old white guy in the room. I too did vote for Biden, though I love Elizabeth Warren, and she would have made an extraordinarily wonderful president. By the time Massachusetts was voting, if she looked more electable, if she was a frontrunner, you all would have stuck with it.

Yeah, you bet. Absolutely, yeah. Did you see when she, you know, obviously she comes out and talks at her house. Did you see that? Oh, yes. I was here in the living room. I was in my own living room listening to it, watching. And, yeah, I cried through the whole thing.

It's heartbreaking. Do you remember something she said that day that stuck with you or maybe caused you to, like, feel that emotion? Well, one of the things was that, you know how she talked about the pinky swear that she does with the little kids? The first time I met her, which was way back when, before she was elected senator for the first time, she was doing that with little girls that were there.

What is the pinky swear? That girls can be president. She gets right down to their level. She gets right down to their eye level and talks to the girls like that. The race is now down to two guys. After starting with such a diverse field, gender, racial, all of that,

how does it feel for it to be down to two men when you had four women senators at the start, all of whom you liked? I know, it's sick, isn't it? It's, you know, it was almost inevitable. I think people are, not panicked, but I think that people are very, very concerned that we have to beat Trump.

But why does the feeling we have to beat Trump. But why does the feeling of need to beat Trump then translate to men? So you're saying, I think a lot of people are scared. I think a lot of people just want to beat Trump. And that's why it came down to two men. What is necessarily male about those qualities? Because there are so many people in the country that just would not vote for a woman, like that woman that I was talking about before.

And we really feel the need to prevail this time especially. So the idea that a woman candidate is a risk because of other people's or the country's sexism. Yes, that's how I feel. It's a terrible thing to have to feel, but I do feel that way. Right now. I don't think it's always going to be like that, but I think it's the way it is

right now. Alright. Thank you. You can go skiing now. Oh, good. I'm sorry you can't come with us. That was too bad. Tell us where you're going. Warren, Vermont.

It's very funny because we have our ski place right next to our daughter and son-in-law in Warren, Vermont. And our son-in-law's parents live in Warren, Rhode Island. A Warren household to the end. It's one voter's view that sexism is what consumed the Elizabeth Warren campaign. And certainly, that's one that's popular among her most diehard supporters. But I'm wondering, is this the view inside her own campaign? Do they think that the barriers

that gender placed on them were too big to overcome? The same day we met with Lynn, we headed to the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, to Elizabeth Warren's campaign headquarters. It's kind of like a warehouse-y building, nondescript, very on brand. There is a Dunkin' Donuts right across the street. To meet with someone who's worked for the Warren campaign from the start. I'm Kristen Orthman, the communications director for Elizabeth Warren. As communications director, Kristen's in charge of trying to best translate

the candidate to the rest of the country, particularly through the media. And over the course of this campaign, we got to know each other pretty well. Now that the campaign has ended, I'm wondering whether Kristen will speak more candidly about what went wrong and about what role gender specifically played in the campaign's demise. Is there something different about planning communications and media for women politicians? Yes. In what way? I think that there can be more caution when you're working for a woman because you're viewing things through the lens of much more of how will this be perceived. be perceived. And I think I have an appreciation for the challenges of the Clinton presidential campaign, probably now than I did when I first started. In what way? I think that the fact that

there were stories when Elizabeth first ran, there was an infamous one, like the day she announced. This is December 31st, 2018, when Warren first announced her intentions to seek the presidency. Talking about like, I think it was the likability factor, her versus Hillary, because there were two women who ran for president who, two white women who ran for president that had blonde hair. I mean, I don't, I guess I'm not quite sure what else warranted necessarily that. So when it becomes clear she's running for president that had blonde hair. I mean, I don't, I guess I'm not quite sure what else warranted necessarily that. So when it becomes clear she's running for president, how forefront of mind was gender and the need to define her on her own outside of Clinton or whatever terms? I think when you're running for president, male, female, you have to be yourself.

So what I was always and what our team and her always wanted to make sure is you're showing what you would hope is the truest version of yourself. One of the critiques of the Clinton campaign, fair or not, was that many voters felt like they never really knew her authentic self. That there was a barrier between candidate and voter, built up over all those years in the public eye. So Kristen and her team tried to go in the opposite direction, to distinguish Warren, both from Clinton,

but also from everyone else. You know, she runs out on stage. Hello, Indianola! She dances. She stays for hours for photos. So we just finished our event here in new york city and i got a lot of notes and a can she is just like the compassionate and joyful person that i know behind the scenes was the person that was on a town hall stage

or the like fighter that I've also seen behind the scenes and that many people saw whether in the hearing room or otherwise was the person on the debate stage. There is a vulnerability that comes with that being a female candidate versus being a male candidate. I always was thinking through the risks in that because I just knew that the mistakes that, I'm using quotes because I don't always think they were, but they were perceived as mistakes that female candidates make. It's like a higher bar. But to her, these risks were necessary components of running an authentic campaign.

Let's do the things that have now become like signatures of the, were signatures of the campaign. It's like, well, OK, she's running for president to say something and do something. So let's start doing that. So let's start doing that. 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is leading the pack when it comes to policy proposals. So I've got a plan for 3.2 million new housing units in America. I've got a plan to put 800 billion new federal dollars into our public schools. I've got a plan for that. She became, Dan. I got a plan for that. She became known as the

I Have a Plan for That candidate. The I Have a Plan for That just kind of happened organically. Time magazine put it on the cover and that's kind of when it became more of a thing. I think it happened like grassroots level before that. People started talking about it because we were doing it.

There was like a whole meme section of Warren playing. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And by the end of last fall, Warren has crossed into frontrunner status. He's leading in some national polls. But this is also about the time that I noticed the shift in the race. The primary change from a contest to ideas to one of just an obsession about who can win. Do you think that's true? I think the primary campaign has always been about who can win. How does that impact the women specifically who are running? I do think I like sort of need distance in order to fully formulate, but I don't think there's any

question that electability was viewed through a lens that probably hurt the women candidates because there was a perception that after 2016, even though the female candidate got 3 million more votes, is a woman not electable. And she has said before publicly that she would hear that from people in the early states, like, I'm worried about who can beat Trump. But I don't think all of a sudden in October, it was like, let's make this primary about who's going who can beat Trump. But I don't think all of a sudden in October it was like, let's make this primary about who's going to beat Donald Trump. That's what it's been. I would largely agree.

Certainly electability has never been far from mind for most Democratic voters. But as more and more people tuned into the race, particularly around this time in the late fall, it shifted its tone. Policy ideas took a back seat to that electability question. And the candidates who had most clearly articulated their path to victory started to rise, while Elizabeth Warren started to fall. This coincided with rival candidates like Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar increasingly casting Warren's campaign as out of touch with the mainstream Democratic Party and a real general election risk. And so, to respond to that scrutiny, the Warren campaign tries to reposition itself as a unity candidate, someone who can actually bring all sides together. There's some time during the

kind of like unity candidate phase where I did feel like it was different from the fight that we had heard before. How do you square those two versions that we did see just this year? I mean, I think you can both... Unity doesn't mean not fighting. I never didn't think she was herself. Take us into, like, debate prep, for instance. Like, are you sitting there thinking, we have to package a candidate and there are concerns about how she'll be perceived if she attacks too much or attacks too little?

Like, how much is gender a concern as you are thinking about the big national combative moments? you are thinking about the big national combative moments? You know, I don't want to make a big statement saying it's easier for men to attack than women. I do think that there are probably greater consequences to a failed attack by a female than a failed attack by a male. Because obviously she had a debate performance a couple, two debates ago, where she, you know, she was doing some level of contrast with Mayor Bloomberg. I like to talk about who we're running against, a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians.

And no, I'm not talking about Donald Trump. I'm talking about Mayor Bloomberg. Democrats are not... She was really strong. She was tough and she was dynamic. Democrats take a huge risk. If we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another. This country has worked... They were contrasting with each other,

and I think overall it was agreed upon that she did well in that exchange. But this came in Nevada after two straight disappointing finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire. Just, I mean, if we're just going to take Nevada, I feel like that is a reason to ask why then and not previously. Was it, were you all in rooms saying, well, we can't attack yet?

You know, one of the things I remember from the second this campaign started was the way that supporters were so eager to see her, you know, cut down the Bidens and the Bernies and everyone else. It really didn't get that payoff until Nevada. Why? So I kind of reject the premise of your question because I think that you can be both advocating for yourself and creating contrast in ways that are not, that don't always need to be how it happened in Nevada. Senator Warren, what did you think when Senator Sanders told you

a woman could not win the election? I disagreed. Bernie is my friend, and I am not here to try to fight with Bernie. But look. Now someone say, and this is what I heard frequently from reporters, oh, you guys are doing subtle contrast. People don't get that. People don't know that. Like, I don't necessarily agree with that. bar of how do we balance advocating for yourself and your ideas versus contrasting with other

people. You characterize Warren as contrasting with Bloomberg. Others might characterize that as she was attacking Bloomberg or going after Bloomberg. And I wonder, yeah, I wonder if like in your role, you're choosing your words carefully because you know that male politicians are treated differently or characterized differently than female politicians. I very specifically use the word contrast. So you are correct that I was specifically choosing those words. That was your question, right? Yeah. There's a prevailing view from Warren supporters that gender was the foremost reason that she wasn't successful in this race.

Do you share that? You think that's a prevailing view? Yeah, definitely. I just think I probably need more time to think about it. And I'm not trying to like not answer your question. I think that there were what she said yesterday around like there were basically two ideological, I think she called them polls, we could call them lanes. That's not necessarily genderized. That is like an ideological reason.

an ideological reason. And then I think electability, the idea of electability, was the other reason. Now, the idea of electability through the eyes of can a woman win? Certainly, that's gender. And I would add that it wasn't just can a woman win? It was can a non-white or non-male candidate win? It seems, for that last point, it seems as if then this kind of place that we've ended with kind of two people on the ideological polls, both of them being, you know, white males. Was that inevitable? I mean, maybe. I don't know. I don't know. so hard to get people i think this is true i mean particularly being a male reporter asking women about sexism you like need people to to you like like oh were you thinking about this then that's like not really how biases work right like like does she say contrast and not attack because

of sexism maybe but it's so deeply um pervasive that's not something you actively think about as you're doing it and And I feel like that makes sometimes the reporting challenge difficult because you're asking these candidates like, wasn't that sexist? Wasn't that racist? Wasn't that blah blah blah? And it's like, maybe? I think there are a lot of challenges in the race. And ideology was one, name recognition is one, fundraising is one. And sexism and gender pervades all of those things and does it define all of those things maybe it forms all of those things is a better way to put it but like you know how do you know um gender in this race you know that is the trap question for every woman uh if you say yeah there

was sexism in this race everyone says whiner and if you say no there was no sexism about a bazillion women think what planet do you live on um i promise you this, I will have a lot more to say on that subject later on. Senator, advice to your supporters right now looking for Canada. What is your advice to them? For an update on the economic fallout from the coronavirus, which triggered historic declines in global financial markets on Monday, listen to the latest. You can find it on the daily feed or by searching for The Latest wherever you listen.

That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Bavaro. See you tomorrow.