Trump Calls Sen. Warren ‘Pocahontas’ At Native American Event

WASHINGTON, DC — President Donald Trump resurfaced his insult nickname for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday, calling her “Pocahontas” at an event honoring Native American code talkers.

"You were here long before any of us were here,” Trump told the code talkers who were at the White House event Monday afternoon. “Although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas."

Trump’s jab at Warren, a Democrat, is one he has used since the 2016 presidential campaign, when Warren was campaigning for Hillary Clinton. Warren has said she is of Native American ancestry, but only has family tales of her lineage to back up the claim. Questions about her heritage have been drummed up by her Republican detractors since she was first running for Senate in 2012.

In an interview on MSNBC after the event, Warren told host Ali Velshi, "It is deeply unfortunate that the president of the United States cannot make it through a ceremony honoring these heroes without throwing out a racial slur."

At the White House press briefing after the event, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked if the president saw political value in "calling people out racially." Sanders responded that, "Warren was very offensive when she lied about something specifically to advance her career.”

Warren listed herself as a minority in a legal directory for about a decade, and Harvard listed her as a Native American when she was teaching at the law school, the Boston Globe reported during the 2012 Senate race. But the newspaper also found Warren did not seek minority admission when applying for Rutgers in 1973, and she listed herself as "white" when she taught at the University of Texas from 1981 to 1991.

Warren also maintains that she has not used her Native American ancestry to advance her career.

At the event itself, Trump also honored the Native American code talkers who used their language to protect communications on World War I and World War II battlefields. He said White House Chief of Staff John Kelly had told him, "You have no idea what they’ve done for this country. And the strength and the bravery and the love that they have for the country."

Code talkers who were at the event stood at the podium and one spoke of their experiences in WWII as U.S. forces fought for control of the Japanese island Iwo Jima.

Watch: Trump Makes 'Pocahontas' Jab At An Event Honoring Navajo Code Talkers

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Susan Walsh