U.S. Senator Warren says she's not running for president, once again
Xinhua, April 4, 2015 Adjust font size:
Though the 2016 U.S. presidential election is still in its nascent stage with more than a dozen of potential candidates keeping secret when their final announcements will be, one popular and influential Democrat has already made her message crystal clear: she is not going to run.
For the umpteenth time, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, favored by many as an anti-Wall Street, middle-class warrior, repeated her outright message in the week that she was not going to run for presidency in 2016. And for the umpteenth time, will her announcement of not running fall on deaf ears?
On Tuesday, Warren was pressed for three times about her presidential ambitions on NBC's "Today" show.
"No. I'm not running and I'm not going to run," she said.
Just a day before, the senator had already ruled out possibility of any White House bid in a book promotion event and in an interview with NPR with almost identical reply.
On Wednesday, NBC's "Late Night" host Seth Meyers made an attempt to lay the Warren presidential run talk to rest.
Airing clips about Warren asked lots of different ways by other news hosts, Meyers said, "In all seriousness, at this point Elizabeth Warren might have to be the first candidate to make a not-campaign poster."
"While I appreciate the media's need to incessantly ask these questions, we have to remember that just because somebody's politician doesn't mean we can't take them at their word."
While Meyers believed it is time to move on, he admitted that the constant media fever over Warren stemmed from Democrats who were still pushing her.
Warren's refusal to join the 2016 Democratic primary does not thrill a handful of liberal groups, who see former Secretary of State and former First Lady Hillary Clinton as too close to Wall Street institutes.
"I think we need to give her a chance, if she is going to run, and to declare," Warren told NBC, referring to Clinton's expected presidency bid.
For months, Warren has been the subject of a draft presidential campaign as liberal groups offer their stalwart support to convince the former Harvard law professor that she should run for the 2016 presidency.
"In the wake of the Great Recession, Senator Warren stood up to the big banks ... Senator Warren is leading the fight for students and graduates who are struggling under the weight of crippling student loan debt," wrote a statement by "Run Warren Run," a campaign organized by liberal political groups.
"Our country will be better off if Elizabeth Warren runs for president," the statement said.
The U.S. daily the Boston Globe recently also published an editorial urging Warren to reconsider her decision not to run.
"Democrats would be making a big mistake if they let Hillary Clinton coast to the presidential nomination without real opposition," the editorial wrote.
Party support so far for potential Democratic candidates was predominately concentrated on Hillary Clinton with a rate of 62 percent in a March CNN/ORC poll, with the second top contender, Vice President Joe Biden, standing at 15 percent. The supporting rate for Warren stood only at 10 percent. Endite