‘Small, insecure money grubber’: Warren goes after Trump while campaigning with Clinton

Sen. Elizabeth Warren made her first presidential campaign appearance alongside Hillary Clinton on Monday, mocking Donald Trump and painting Clinton as a fighter for working-class people.

“I’m here today because I’m with her,” Warren said at the Cincinnati event, turning at the podium to face Clinton and applaud. “Yes, her!”

The two Democrats stood next to each other in nearly matching jackets as the Massachusetts senator further called Trump a “small, insecure money grubber” and a “nasty man who will never become president of the United States.”

Warren, who is reportedly on Clinton’s shortlist for vice president, has proven a potent attack dog against Trump. But the progressive stalwart serves an even more important purpose to Clinton now: She lends liberal credibility to Clinton, who is still battling to win over Sen. Bernie Sanders’ supporters.

Sanders has declined to endorse Clinton even though she became the presumptive nominee weeks ago. However, he has made clear he will eventually vote for her, and he is expected to throw his support behind her by the Democratic National Convention in July. Forty-five percent of Sanders supporters have a positive view of Clinton, up from 38 percent last month, according to a recent NBC News poll.

Warren, a former academic who studied how high health care costs caused bankruptcies, became a grassroots progressive hero by arguing that Wall Street bankers should be punished for the risky bets that caused the 2008 financial crisis, a key issue of Sanders and his supporters. Her visible and energetic embrace of Clinton could help them feel more warmly toward Clinton as well.

She also hit back on Trump’s frequent attacks on her as being “goofy.” She went after his slogan — “Make America great again” — and said he looks “goofy” in his baseball hat.

“When Donald Trump says he’ll make America great again, he means make it even greater for rich guys like Donald Trump,” she said. “And watch out because he will crush you into the dirt to get whatever he wants. That’s who he is.”

Trump responded in an interview with NBC News after the speech, saying he hopes Clinton picks Warren as his running mate. “I will speak very openly about her if she is,” he said. “She is one of the least productive senators in the United States Senate.” Trump also criticized her for saying she has Native American ancestry.

Following Warren, Clinton gave a populist economic speech calling for the wealthy and corporations to pay higher taxes, promising to raise the minimum wage and criticizing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, which she supported in an earlier form as secretary of state. Clinton said that as president, she would appoint a “trade prosecutor,” who would “end the abuse of our markets, our workers, our people.” She further said she would prevent China from injecting the market with cheap steel.

Clinton also criticized Trump for making many of his companies’ own products abroad. “Trump’s suits were made in Mexico. He could have made them in Brooklyn, Ohio,” she told the Cincinnati crowd. “How does that fit into all his talk about America first?”

Clinton and Warren appeared to have good chemistry on the stump, clasping hands and firing up the crowd. Clinton mouthed “thank you” to Warren as the senator praised her for fighting for working people. But the two have not always had a warm relationship. In her 2004 book, Warren described Clinton as curt with her staff and accused her of being beholden to Wall Street, the New York Times reported. If Clinton picked Warren as vice president, it would also mean Democrats would lose a Senate seat, since Massachusetts’ Republican governor would pick her replacement.