First campaign fail? Presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren is blasted for 'desperate' and 'try hard' Instagram Live video which shows her chugging on a beer

• e-mail

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is being widely criticized on Tuesday for pandering to millennials by posting a live video Q&A on Instagram while chugging on a beer.

The 69-year-old Warren cracked open a beer on-camera on an Instagram livestream on New Year's Eve, and took questions from followers.

The seemingly-spontaneous video channeled similar social-media efforts by former Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke and incoming New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, following Warren's announcement Monday that she is forming an exploratory committee for a 2020 run.

Sen. Warren said she and her husband watch Casablanca together every New Year's Eve 

The Instagram livestream echoed similar down-the-lens efforts by O'Rouke and Ocasio-Cortez

After taking questions for a while the Senator said: 'Hold on a second -- I'm gonna get me a beer,' before walked out of view of the camera and returning bottle in hand

'I'm here in my kitchen, uh, and um, I thought maybe we'd just take some questions and I'd see what I can do,' Warren began as she looked into a camera apparently set up on a countertop. 

She continued: 'It's been kind of an amazing day. So, today, I, um, got up early this morning, and, uh, talked to a bunch of folks on the phone, and then went outside and talked to the press -- and this is our house, and has been for a long time, and there are all these reporters, and trucks, and everybody outside the house.'

Shortly afterwards she said: 'Hold on a second -- I'm gonna get me a beer,' and walked out of view of the camera.

Warren, who has a proven track record as a small-dollar fundraiser, announced upon returning that she has already received donations from individuals in all 50 states, the District, and Puerto Rico, adding: 'It really has been an exciting day,' she said.

She told followers she and her husband would be following their usual New Year's Eve routine: 'We watch Casablanca, we get some good food ... and, um, we sit there upstairs and we watch Casablanca.' 

She added the movie fills her with hope. 

Ocasio-Cortez, 29, used Instagram stories and livestreams during her run last year to connect with her supporters. O'Rourke often broadcast himself cooking at home during his failed bid to unseat Ted Cruz in Texas.

'Looks like we have candidates shamelessly copying [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] by doing kitchen Instagram videos,' tweeted Laura Wilson

'Either Democrats think 12-year-olds vote or they realize their base is stupid and votes for style over substance,' tweeted one Twitter user

'It's impossible to take Elizabeth Warren seriously,' tweeted Lee Border. 'What a joke!'

'Elizabeth Warren took a moment out of her "I'm just a regular gal" video to go get a beer, crack it open and drink it...The hypocrisy is astounding,' tweeted a Twitter user

Warren was mocked for trying to appeal to younger voters with her Instagram video

Trump supporters on Twitter hit out at Warren for 'not [setting] good examples for them'

Other Twitter users said Warren drinking beer was ironic given that Democrats thought Brett Kavanaugh wasn't fit to be a Supreme Court Justice

Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court after a bitter battle in which his drinking habits and an alleged rape were at the center of the debate

Journalist Michael Tracey tweeted: 'Oh my god every 2020 presidential candidate is going to livestream their personal lives non-stop like insecure teens. Happy frickin new year.'

But Warren's appeal to young voters struck many as inauthentic given her personality.

'Elizabeth Warren seems more like a chardonnay senator than a beer senator,' Boston University politics professor Tobe Berkovitz told The Boston Herald. 

'It’s just sort of trying too hard … and people have pretty good radar for that sort of thing.' 

Ryan Williams, a Republican strategist, said: 'She’s never really made this type of appeal.

'She’s nervous about newer younger faces in the Democratic party. 

'She’s making a pretty desperate attempt to make it look like she’s cool.'

The reaction on social media was similarly critical.

'Looks like we have candidates shamelessly copying [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] by doing kitchen Instagram videos,' tweeted Laura Wilson. 

'Either Democrats think 12-year-olds vote or they realize their base is stupid and votes for style over substance,' tweeted another Twitter user. 

'It's impossible to take Elizabeth Warren seriously,' tweeted Lee Border. 'What a joke!' 

'Elizabeth Warren took a moment out of her "I'm just a regular gal" video to go get a beer, crack it open and drink it...The hypocrisy is astounding,' tweeted a Twitter user.

Other Twitter users said Warren drinking beer was ironic given that Democrats thought Brett Kavanaugh wasn't fit to be a Supreme Court Justice.

Kavanaugh was confirmed to the bench after a bitter battle during which a woman came forward to accuse him of attempted rape during a high school party more than 30 years ago. 

Journalist Michael Tracey tweeted: 'Oh my god every 2020 presidential candidate is going to livestream their personal lives non-stop like insecure teens. Happy frickin new year.' 

Warren is the first candidate to take the major step toward a run in what is expected to be a crowded field. 

Tonight's Instagram effort by Senator Warren may have been inspired by social media videos by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Ocasio-Cortez’s communications director told Rolling Stone his candidate thought social media had 'more capacity for transparency and just to be herself'.

President Donald Trump said on Monday that he would 'love to run' against Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, though one would have to 'ask her psychiatrist' if she has a chance to win.

It was unclear what Trump meant by the comment, which he made during an interview on the Fox News Channel on Monday.

'I wish her well, I'd love to run against her,' the President told Fox News after Warren announced that she was forming an exploratory committee - the first step which indicates a plan to eventually run for the White House.

Trump then mentioned the controversy over a DNA test which Warren took to prove that she is of Native American origin.

President Donald Trump conducted a phone interview with Fox News contributor Pete Hegseth (left) on New Year's Eve 

'She did very badly in proving that she was of Indian heritage,' Trump said. 

'That didn't work out too well. I think [Fox News reporter Pete Hegseth] ha[s] more than she does, and maybe I do too, and I have nothing. 

'So we'll see how she does.'

When Trump was asked if she can win, he replied: 'Well, I don't know, you'd have to ask her psychiatrist.' 

Warren dodged questions on Monday about her biggest political liabilities as she jumped headfirst into the 2020 Democratic presidential primary process. 

In announcing the formation of a presidential exploratory committee, Warren staked out the first significant territory in what will likely be a crowded field of Democrats itching for a swing at Trump.

President Donald Trump said on Monday that he would 'love to run' against Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, though one would have to 'ask her psychiatrist' if she has a chance to win 

But she showed no sign she's ready to overcome the self-inflected scandal that has dogged her for years: her questionable claim of American Indian ancestry. 

The result was an unsteady performance that none of the three major cable news networks broadcast live from beginning to end. 

Asked in her first question as a candidate-in-waiting how she will respond to Democrats who worry that her slow-motion ancestry gaffe had left her too vulnerable to be electable, Warren defaulted to talking points.

'I'm in this fight because I understand what's happening to working families,' she said outside her home near Boston, standing alongside her husband Bruce Mann.

Warren spoke to reporters with her husband Bruce (left)  at her side, after announcing she has formed an exploratory committee to run for president in 2020

The first question from a reporter as she entered the 2020 fray was about her electability given her Native American DNA scandal – and she avoided answering it

Trump has long been critical of Warren for claiming to have Cherokee ancestry, a move the president claims gave her preferential treatment in university hiring at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.

Warren conceded this month that she is 'not a person of color,' following her embarrassing October release of DNA test data that concluded her proportion of American Indian blood might be as small as 1 part in 1,024 – lower than average European-Americans.

She sidestepped a separate question on Monday about whether her far-left brand of populism will polarize American voters, denying her meaningful support outside the liberal northeast U.S. and California.

Instead she acknowledged only that CEOs and investment bankers won't like her. 

'The problem we've got right now in Washington is that it works great for those who have money, to buy influence,' said Warren, 69. 'And I'm fighting against that, and you bet it's going to make a lot of people unhappy.'

The 69-year-old Democrat would not, however, rule out accepting help from super PACs built with their political contributions. 

'Would you take support from super PACs,' a reporter asked.

Despite a crush of TV cameras covering Warren's announcement and her short Q&A with reporters, none of the three big cable TV news networks broadcast the entire event live 

Warren, pictured walking away after the short press availability, said she's no fan of super PACs or the billionaire who fund them, but didn't rule out accepting their help in 2020

How she announced: Elizabeth Warren used New Year's Eve morning to make her presidential move in a video recorded in her kitchen but slickly produced

A flustered Warren said only that 'I don't think we ought to be running campaigns that are funded by billionaires, whether it goes through super PACs or their own money that they're spending.'

That fell short of a pledge to shun their help as she runs for the White House. 

'I've already received donations from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico,' she boasted, before revealing that she would spend New Year's Eve with her husband doing what they always do: watching the 1942 film 'Casablanca.'

Trump aides licked their chops and laughed as they anticipated a battle between the president and the ultra-liberal swashbuckler he regularly mocks as 'Pocahontas.'

A Trump administration official with knowledge of the president's thinking said Monday that Warren 'will go down in flames,' and cracked a subtle Native American joke.

'She's going to somehow ride her far-left platform into the White House?' the official asked.

'How?'

'It's a dream come true,' said a second official, adding a fond hope that Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal would follow Warren into the race.

'Can we get Blumenthal to run too? More phony Democrats, please,' said that official.

She's (almost) running: Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren used New Year's Eve to announce she is setting up an exploratory committee for a 2020 bid

President Donald Trump has said he would love to face Warren, and has already spent two years publicly mocking her to soften the ground

Trump has similarly weaponized Blumenthal's past missteps, turning his military career into a case of stolen valor because he has falsely claimed to have fought in Vietnam.

Blumenthal served in uniform as a U.S. Marine reservist for six years but spent the war thousands of miles from harm's way. 

Warren's New Year's Eve launch guaranteed she had the nation's political spotlight largely to herself. 

'America's middle class is under attack,' the 69-year-old Massachusetts Democrat said in a launch video. 

'How did we get here? Billionaires and big corporations decided they wanted more of the pie. And they enlisted politicians to cut them a bigger slice.' 

She tried to strike a uniting tone, declaring that 'no matter what our differences, most of us want the same thing: 'to be able to work hard, play by the same set of rules and take care of the people we love. That's what I'm fighting for.' 

The Republican National Committee blasted out a scathing reply. 

Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said that Warren 'couldn't be more out of touch. With her lack of support from voters – including in her home state – on top of her phony claim to minority status, now that she is formally running Americans will see her for what she is: another extreme far-left obstructionist and a total fraud.' 

Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal is another liberal Democrat who Trump aides would like to see enter the 2020 contest, because of his false claims to have fought in Vietnam 

On the blocks: In an email to supporters, Warren said she'd more formally announce a campaign plan early in 2019. She can now raise money for a run

Warren burst onto the national scene a decade ago during the financial crisis with calls for greater consumer protections. 

She quickly became one of the party's more prominent liberals even as she sometimes fought with Obama administration officials over their response to the market turmoil.

Now, as a likely presidential contender, she is making an appeal to the party's base. Her video notes the economic challenges facing people of color along with images of a women's march and Warren's participation at an LGBT event.

In an email to supporters, Warren said she'd more formally announce a campaign plan early in 2019.

Warren is the most prominent Democrat yet to make a move toward a presidential bid and has long been a favorite target of President Donald Trump.

In mid-December, former Obama housing chief Julian Castro also announced a presidential exploratory committee, which legally allows potential candidates to begin raising money. Outgoing Maryland Rep. John Delaney is the only Democrat so far to have formally announced a presidential campaign.

But that's likely to change quickly in the new year as other leading Democrats take steps toward White House runs.

Greatest hits: Trump is likely to make use of his previous assault on Elizabeth Warren's claims of Native American roots, which he stepped up in the wake of her DNA test

Warren enters a Democratic field that's shaping up as the most crowded in decades, with many of her Senate colleagues openly weighing their own campaigns, as well as governors, mayors and other prominent citizens. 

One of her most significant competitors could be Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who is eyeing another presidential run harnessing the same populist rhetoric.

She must also move past the widely panned October DNA test stunt meant to bolster her claim to Native American heritage. Instead, the use of a genetic test to prove her ethnicity emboldened Trump's taunts of her as 'Pocahontas.' 

There was no direct mention of the controversy, or of Trump, in Monday's video. It did include images of the president and his inner-circle current and former aides who her base most loves to hate: Kellyanne Conway, Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon.

Warren has the benefit of higher name recognition than many others in the Democratic mix for 2020, thanks to her years as a prominent critic of Wall Street who originally conceived of what became the government's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

She now faces an arduous battle to raise money and capture Democratic primary voters' attention before Iowa casts its first vote in more than a year. 

She has an advantage in the $12.5 million left over from her 2018 re-election campaign that she could use for a presidential run.

Warren's campaign is likely to revolve around the same theme she's woven into speeches and policy proposals in recent years: battling special interests, paying mind to the nexus between racial and economic inequities.

'America's middle class is under attack,' Warren said in the video. 

'How did we get here? Billionaires and big corporations decided they wanted more of the pie. And they enlisted politicians to cut them a fatter slice.'

JOE BIDEN AND THE 28 DEMOCRATS HE RAN AGAINST TO BECOME PARTY'S 2020 CANDIDATE

JOE BIDEN

Age on Inauguration Day 2021: 78

Entered race: April 25, 2019

Career: No current role. A University of Delaware and Syracuse Law graduate, he was first elected to Newcastle City Council in 1969, then won upset election to Senate in 1972, aged 29. Was talked out of quitting before being sworn in when his wife and daughter died in a car crash and served total of six terms. Chaired Judiciary Committee's notorious Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. Ran for president in 1988, pulled out after plagiarism scandal, ran again in 2008, withdrew after placing fifth in the Iowa Caucuses. Tapped by Obama as his running mate and served two terms as vice president. Contemplated third run in 2016 but decided against it after his son died of brain cancer.

Family: Eldest of four siblings born to Joe Biden Sr. and Catherine Finnegan. First wife Neilia Hunter and their one-year-old daughter Naomi died in car crash which their two sons, Joseph 'Beau' and Robert Hunter survived. Married Jill Jacobs in 1976, with whom he has daughter Ashley. Beau died of brain cancer in 2015. Hunter's marriage to Kathleen Buhle, with whom he has three children, ended in 2016 when it emerged Hunter was in a relationship with Beau's widow Hallie, mother of their two children. Hunter admitted cocaine use; his estranged wife accused him of blowing their savings on drugs and prostitutes

Religion: Catholic

Views on key issues: Ultra-moderate who will emphasize bipartisan record. Will come under fire over record, having voted: to stop desegregation bussing in 1975; to overturn Roe v Wade in 1981; for now controversial 1994 Violent Crime Act; for 2003 Iraq War; and for banking deregulation. Says he is 'most progressive' Democrat. New positions include free college, tax reform, $15 minimum wage. No public position yet on Green New Deal and healthcare. Pro-gun control. Has already apologized to women who say he touched them inappropriately

Would make history as: Oldest person elected president

Slogan: Our Best Days Still Lie Ahead 

 

AND THE 28 WHO HAVE WITHDRAWN   

MICHAEL BENNET, Colorado senator

• Entered race: May 2, 2019 
• Quit:  February 12, 2019, evening of New Hampshire primary

MIKE BLOOMBERG

Entered race: November 24, 2019

Quit: March 4, 2020, day after Super Tuesday primaries

CORY BOOKER, New Jersey Senator 

• Entered race: February 1, 2019
• Quit: January 13, 2020 

STEVE BULLOCK, Montana governor 

• Entered race: May 14, 2019 
• Quit: December 2, 2019

PETE BUTTIGIEG, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana

Entered race: January 23, 2019

Quit: March 1, 2020, day after South Carolina primary 

JULIÁN CASTRO, former Housing Secretary

• Entered race: January 18, 2019
• Quit: January 2, 2020 

BILL DE BLASIO, New York City mayor 

• Entered race: May 16, 2019
• Quit: September 20, 2020

JOHN DELANEY, former Maryland Congressman

• Entered race: July 8, 2017
• Quit: January 31, 2019 

KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, New York senator

• Entered race: January 16, 2019
• Quit: August 28, 2019 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii congresswoman

• Entered race: January 11 2019
• Quit: March 19, 2020 

MIKE GRAVEL, Former Alaska governor

• Entered race: April 2,2019
• Quit: August 2, 2019 

KAMALA HARRIS,California senator  

• Entered race: January 21, 2019
• Quit: December 3, 2019 

JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Former Colorado governor

• Entered race: March 4, 2019
• Quit: August 15, 2019 

JAY INSLEE, Washington governor 

• Entered race: March 1, 2019
• Quit: August 21, 2019

AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota senator 

• Entered race: February 19, 2019
• Quit: March 2, 2020 

WAYNE MESSAM, mayor of Miramar, Florida 

• Entered race: March 28, 2019
• Quit: November 20, 2019 

SETH MOULTON, Massachusetts congressman

• Entered race:  April 22,2019
• Quit: August 23, 2019

RICHARD OJEDA, former West Virginia state senator

• Entered race: November 12, 2018
• Quit: January 25, 2019 

BETO O'ROURKE, former Texas congressman

• Entered race: March 14, 2019 
• Quit: November 1, 2019  

DEVAL PATRICK, former Massachusetts governor 

• Entered race: November 13, 2019
• Quit:  February 13, 2019, morning after New Hampshire primary

TIM RYAN, Ohio congressman

• Entered race: April 4, 2019
• Quit: October 24, 2019

BERNIE SANDERS, Vermont senator 

• Entered race: January 25, 2019  
• Quit: April 8, 2020 

JOE SESTAK, former Pennsylvania congressman 

• Entered race: June 23, 2019
• Quit: December 1, 2019

 TOM STEYER, billionaire activist 

• Entered race: July 9, 2019
• Quit: February 29, 2020

ERIC SWALWELL, California congressman 

• Entered race: April 8, 2019
• Quit: July 8, 2019  

ELIZABETH WARREN, Massachusetts senator

Entered race: December 31, 2018

Quit: March 5, 2020, two days after Super Tuesday 

MARIANNE WILLIAMSON, author

• Entered race: November 15, 2018
• Quit: January 10, 2020 

ANDREW YANG, entrepreneur

• Entered race: November 6, 2018
• Quit: February 12, 2019, evening of New Hampshire primary