House GOP conference chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., on Sunday suggested that 2020 presidential contender Elizabeth Warren should be disbarred for falsely claiming American Indian heritage on a recently unearthed form she submitted to the Texas State Bar in 1986.
Asked by anchor Jake Tapper to respond to Trump’s rhetoric, Cheney said Warren deserved the ridicule.
“Look, Elizabeth Warren has made herself a laughingstock. I don’t think anybody should be surprised that that’s been the reaction to her,” Cheney said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
.@jaketapper: “What about the language the President uses and the joking references to genocide against Native Americans?”@RepLizCheney: "Elizabeth Warren has made herself a laughingstock.” https://t.co/hgwicQep8h #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/NJKfAhePMm
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) February 10, 2019
The April 1986 bar card, initially reported by The Washington Post, is the first known instance of Warren claiming Native American ancestry in an official document or in her own handwriting. Warren was a professor at the University of Texas School of Law when she filled it out.
“One wonders whether or not that’s grounds for disbarment, if you misrepresent yourself on your application to the bar. I’d say it probably is grounds for disbarment,” Cheney said.
Under the Texas Rules of Professional Conduct, applicants are obligated to correct any material false statements they make to the State Bar during their application process — and even if they are admitted to the bar, past misstatements that surface can still be grounds for disbarment or suspension from the practice of law. (State bars, which regulate attorney conduct and enforce discipline, are distinct from more informal — and more numerous — bar associations.)- READ MORE