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Elizabeth Warren is unveiling a new line of merchandise which, she says, is probably going to make John Kelly angry.
Last year, when John Kelly was the acting head of the Department of Homeland Security, he called Warren an “impolite, angry woman” in an email exchange with his top aide. Buzzfeed obtained Kelly’s emails and published excerpts from them on Thursday.
The emails were written in February 2017, just after the Trump administration issued a travel ban on people coming from seven Muslim-majority countries. Warren and other Democrats criticized the ban, saying that it amounted to unfair treatment of Muslims. After some would-be immigrants were detained at Boston’s Logan airport, Warren asked Kelly for an explanation, arguing that there was a court order in place that should have stopped the ban’s enforcement. This is how he described his conversation with her:
“Absolutely most insulting conversation I have ever had with anyone,” Kelly wrote in an email to Kevin Carroll, his senior counselor at the Department of Homeland Security. “What an impolite arrogant woman. She immediately began insulting our people accusing them of not following the court order, insulting and abusive behavior towards those covered by the pause, blah blah blah.”
Warren Is Trying to Turn Kelly’s Insult into a Slogan
On Friday, Warren announced a new line of t-shirts and tote bags. Some of them bear the slogan “IMPOLITE ANGRY WOMAN.” Others say “IMPOLITE ANGRY WOMEN MAKE HISTORY.” You can take a look at the new products here.
Warren took to Twitter earlier on Friday to share the Buzzfeed article, and to talk about her fight with John Kelly. You can read her comments here.
On Thursday, Warren put up a statement about her interactions with John Kelly. You can read the full statement — which she titled “An Impolite Arrogant Woman” — here. Warren says that back in February 2017, after the travel ban took effect, she and her staff tried repeatedly to contact Homeland Security to discuss what she calls “their policy of illegally detaining Massachusetts residents (and their family members) at Boston Logan Airport.” The trouble was, according to Warren, neither Kelly nor his staff ever returned her calls. And when at last Warren got Kelly on the phone, she says he tried to redirect her call.
Warren says that the conversation got “awkward.” She wrote, “Before we got off the phone, I gave him something back for his troubles – a message on behalf of the American people that it was time to follow the court order and allow people stranded abroad to board planes into Logan International Airport. Was I tough on John Kelly in that phone call? You bet I was. And apparently, he didn’t like it. According to an email he wrote about our conversation just afterward, which was just released, he called me “an impolite arrogant woman.”
You can read the full statement — which concludes in a fundraising appeal — here.
Warren Led a Protest Against the Travel Ban in Logan Airport Last Year
Back in 2017 Warren went to Boston’s Logan Airport with a bullhorn and led a group of protesters calling for an end to the new travel ban. “We will not turn over anyone because of their religion,” Warren cried. “We are a better people than that.”
You can watch the full protest here.
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