Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s slick response to a recent question about gay marriage went viral online, but may not play so well with voters, the Washington Post reported.
In a Thursday equality town hall sponsored by CNN, a gay rights leader posed a question to the presidential hopeful: How would she respond if a voter approached her and said, “I’m old-fashioned, and my faith teaches me that marriage is between one man and one woman?” the Washington Post reported.
She replied: “Well, I’m going to assume it’s a guy who said that. And I’m going to say, ‘Then just marry one woman — I’m cool with that. Assuming you can find one.’”
The exchange attracted more than 99,000 views on YouTube, and went viral on Twitter. But though many thought the quip was brilliant, others compared it to the dismissive “deplorables” remark that dogged Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign -- and drove up turnout for President Donald Trump.
“It’s about telling people who don’t agree with you that they are backward by definition,” Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic strategist who advised Bill Clinton’s presidential reelection campaign, told the Post.
The line played to her liberal studio audience, and was a “stab” to those who don’t agree with her, and “it is a battle cry for men to turn out against Elizabeth Warren,” he added.
Republicans noted the commented essentially mocked those with a different view on same-sex marriage.
“It’s insulting,” Ari Fleischer, the former spokesman to President George W. Bush, told the Post. “The notion that there is only one thought that is acceptable, and if you don’t hold it there is no one on Earth who should find you attractive, is insulting and demeaning.”
“You cannot call people to a higher purpose if you yourself are going to sink to a lower one,” he added.
John Ziegler, an anti-Trump conservative, said Warren’s words telegraphed a dislike of men.
“It plays right into the narrative about her, which is that she’s an out-of-touch liberal from Massachusetts, and this whole obsession with wokeness that the Democratic Party has where the white male is under attack,” Ziegler told the Post.
Antjuan Seawright, a black Democratic strategist based in South Carolina, was skeptical about how the remark would play to black voters.
“I’m not sure how that resonates with older African American voters, especially African American women,” he said. “I’m especially not sure what discussions might carry over to the barbershops this weekend.”
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.