Sen. Elizabeth Warren cracks open beer during New Year's Eve live chat with followers on social media
Democratic Senator Warren hosts seemingly spontaneous livestream from her kitchen following her announcement that she is filing paperwork to launch an exploratory committee for president; David Spunt reports from Washington.
In a seemingly spontaneous livestream posted on Instagram that channeled similar social-media efforts by former Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke and incoming New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren cracked open a beer on-camera and took some questions from her followers on New Year's Eve.
Warren announced at a news conference outside her home hours earlier Monday that she was filing paperwork to launch an exploratory committee for president, becoming the first candidate to take the major step toward a 2020 run -- and she reminded her audience that the day had been a break from her normal routine.
"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, 69, 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."
The liberal firebrand pointed to her dog, Bailey, who was also in the kitchen and who accompanied her earlier in the day.
"And I went out and talked to the press, and Bailey went out -- it was his first press conference -- and my husband Bruce [Mann] was with me," Warren said.
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Seconds later, Warren's apparent craving struck: "Hold on a second -- I'm gonna get me a beer," she said, as she walked out of view of the camera.
"Um, want a beer?" she then asked as her husband briefly entered the room.
"No, I'll pass on a beer for now," he responded. Then, matter-of-factly from across the camera as he left the kitchen, he offered a quick farewell: "Enjoy your beer."
"Enjoy your beer."
After returning, Warren announced that she has already received donations from individuals all 50 states, as well as D.C. and Puerto Rico. "It really has been an exciting day," she said, as she touted the importance of small donors in politics.
"Fortnite? Good to see you," Warren said at one point in the livestream, reading the online handle of one user in the chat, whose name refers to a popular online videogame.
The senator then elaborated on her plans for the evening.
"Here it is -- getting ready for New Year's Eve. It's easy for Bruce and I to make plans, because we pretty much do the same things every year," Warren said. "Um, for New Year's Eve we watch Casablanca, we get some good food ... and, um, we sit there upstairs and we watch Casablanca." She added that the movie "fills me with hope."
Ocasio-Cortez, 29, popularized the use of Instagram stories and livestreams earlier this year to connect with her supporters. O'Rourke, too, often broadcast himself while in his home cooking and performing other tasks.
In November, Corbin Trent, Ocasio-Cortez’s communications director, told Rolling Stone that Ocasio-Cortez used social media to separate herself from older politicians.
Instagram provides Ocasio-Cortez “more capacity for transparency and just to be herself,” Trent told the magazine. “I think there’s a larger comfort level there.”
But Warren likely will face a more spirited opponent in 2020 than did Ocasio-Cortez, who defeated longtime incumbent Democrat Joseph Crowley in a shocking primary upset in part, analysts said, because he did not take her insurgent candidacy seriously enough.
In an exclusive interview set to air during Fox News' 'All-American New Year' special Monday night, President Trump suggested that only Warren's "psychiatrist" knew whether she thought she could win the White House in 2020.
Trump often has derided Warren for claiming she has Native American ancestry. At a rally in July, he joked that he would pull out a heritage kit during a hypothetical presidential debate with Warren and slowly toss it at her, "hoping it doesn't hit her and injure her arm, even though it only weighs probably two ounces."
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