Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Thursday referred to Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren as “Heap Big Squaw Indian Giver,” confirming that he would continue to provide ammunition to critics who accuse him of being both racist and sexist.
Speaking on his radio program, Limbaugh noted that a group of Democratic senators had written a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) asking to delay a medical device tax that was passed as part of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
“Elizabeth Warren, for example, she gave her whole-hearted approval to Obamacare,” Limbaugh explained. “Now, she is one of the senators that wants to take that back.”
“She’s an Indian giver,” he ranted. “Yes! I intended to say that! Elizabeth Warren, Heap Big Squaw Indian Giver!”
During her Senate campaign earlier this year, Warren faced criticism over a claim that her mother was part Cherokee and part Delaware Indian. At one point, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) staffers mocked her heritage by shouting “war whoops” and doing the “Tomahawk Chop” at a campaign rally.
“It is those types of actions that perpetuate negative stereotypes and continue to minimize and degrade all native peoples,” Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation Bill John Baker said in September. “We need individuals in the United States Senate who respect Native Americans and have an understanding of tribal issues.”
(Source: RawStory.com and MediaMatters.org)
