PAINFUL: Elizabeth Warren Was Asked to Name Five Black People This Week, Struggled to Name Three

Massachusetts Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren was asked to name a minimum of five prominent black Americans this week, and struggled to come up with three names.

In a pair of podcast interviews this week, Warren was asked, respectively, to name the black leaders who contributed to her political understanding and to name three African Americans she would like to have in her cabinet if elected.

On the “Voting While Black” podcast Tuesday, Rashad Robinson asked Warren “Who are the black people, the black leaders, the folks who have contributed to your understanding of politics, of advocacy, of why you’re here sitting with me right now, and why you’re out in the world right now championing the causes you’re championing?”

Warren spent about two minutes talking about recently-deceased Congressman Elijah Cummings, saying “Elijah taught me a long time ago that you fight from the heart, and you fight from the heart for what you believe in,” and that it was Cummings who inspired her “when I first started arguing for the consumer agency.”

Cummings was the only black leader Warren named, and the political shaping she described occurred began in 2007. The entire galaxy of black leaders just from within Warren’s lifetime — including Clara Luper, who integrated the staff at Warren’s segregated high school two years after she graduated — did not make the cut.

Robinson also asked Warren to name “a moment, an issue, a policy where you were able to champion racial justice, to make racial justice real?”

Warren replied, at length, that her creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that included “an office on discrimination” was such an example.

On Thursday, Warren sat for a “Conversation with Angela Rye” at North Carolina A&T University, hosted by CNN commentator Angela Rye. After a series of rapid-fire “icebreaker” questions, Rye asked Warren to name three black people she’d like to have in her cabinet.

“When you think about the makeup of your cabinet, what three African Americans do you feel like you have to have in your cabinet?” Rye asked.

“Ooh, you know, there’s a little danger in this answer because some of those folks are running for president, and may not want to be hearing themselves mentioned as cabinet members,” Warren said, adding “Plus, dang, there’s some good people, and some of them are in Congress and may not want to hear that somebody’s got…Is that okay?”

“The congresswoman is saying you don’t have to call my name,” Rye said.

“But what it is, it’s about having people who are fighters,” Warren continued, and pressed that theme for a solid minute.

“It’s about having people who are in the fight and want to be in the fight and are going to stay in the fight. For me it’s about building a cabinet that’s about people who share the same vision, and who don’t just share vision, you don’t just see the big idea, but who have a real commitment to get out there and fight for it, that’s what I want. I want fighters in my cabinet,” Warren said.

“Three names?” Rye asked, again.

“Oh, you’re making me cut off all the politicians,” Warren said, although Rye had not made such a condition.

“But if I can talk about people who aren’t politicians, I’d talk about my former governor Deval Patrick, who is a pretty terrific guy,” Warren said.

“I’d talk about some of the people I’ve met who are presidents of HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities),” Warren added, then narrowed that field by saying “especially those who are deeply engaged in education.”

“And I’m trying to think, ‘cuz I’m trying to stay outside the current Washington Part, where’s the best place to go for cabinet members?” Warren mused aloud, still stuck at one actual name and an undetermined number of HBCU presidents, but on;y those deeply engaged in education.

“You know, it’s, it’s to have people who are in the fight,” Warren said, then added “People like Melody Barnes, my friend of more than 20 years, who has been in this fight from the very beginning, who under President Obama was, did, was domestic policy advisor. Someone like Melody, who may not be as well known to this crowd, but who is out there fighting everyday for money for higher education, money for public schools, so that would be somebody I’d love to have in a cabinet.”

At least she didn’t try to put Frederick Douglass in her cabinet.

Watch the clip above, via WYFF NBC-4.