ABOVE: Sen. Elizabeth Warren, photo via Warren’s Facebook page.
With weeks remaining before the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3, Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren has come out with a pledge to fill half of her Cabinet as president with women and non-binary people.
Warren made the pledge within a Medium post on Tuesday titled, “Restoring Integrity & Competence to Government After Trump,” which says Trump will “leave behind a government that has been infected by corruption and incompetence” upon his presumed exit from the White House after the 2020 election and outlines her plans.
Among the components of Warren’s vision is building a senior leadership team “that reflects the full diversity of America, including having at least 50 percent of Cabinet positions filled by women and non-binary people.”
Further, Warren promises to “ensure representation of LGBTQ+ people across all levels of government, including in leadership roles.”
Gay presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has made a similar pledge to fill half of the roles in his Cabinet with women leaders.
Warren’s make the pledge as she polls about third nationally ahead of the Iowa caucuses behind other candidates Joseph Biden and Bernie Sanders.
The new commitment builds on Warren’s LGBTQ plan for her administration, which includes support for the Equality Act, ending the transgender military ban and allowing a third gender marker option on federal IDs for non-binary people.
Right-wing media pounced on the commitment with ridicule. A Fox News report on the pledge says it’s the latest move from a candidate who “has been criticized for playing identity politics.” Gay conservative writer Brad Polumbo at the Washington Examiner says it demonstrates her “campaign is little more than a pandering parade meant to endear her to woke Twitter.”
In the final debate before the Iowa caucuses, Warren asserted Sanders told her in a 2018 meeting a women couldn’t be elected president in the United States, although Sanders has vehemently denied the charge.
Warren’s pledge was brought up Thursday on “The View,” where progressive co-host Joy Behar said it among the things Warren shouldn’t say aloud.
“It’s one of those things where you’re saying it ahead of time, and if you can’t do it, or won’t do it, then they turn on you, and people call you a hypocrite,” Behar said.
Co-host Sunny Hostin, however, pointed out few women hold senior positions in Trump’s leadership, which she said exemplifies a problem throughout the country.
“There are millions more women in our country than men,” Hostin said.
“Why can’t the Cabinet reflect our country?”
According to Refinery29, Warren has made good in her Senate office on her previous commitment to end gender disparities in the workforce. The ratio of pay between women-and-men is 1.08, according to the report, and she employs 31 women and 20 men both in D.C. and Massachusetts — not including interns.
