Elizabeth Warren reportedly trashed White House's John Kelly over his embarrassing emails

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Elizabeth Warren reportedly trashed White House's John Kelly over his embarrassing emails

Elizabeth Warren

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

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  • Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts reportedly issued a fiery statement against former Homeland Security John Kelly in response to a disparaging email he wrote in 2017.
  • In the email, Kelly described Warren as "an impolite arrogant woman" amid the fallout from President Donald Trump's travel ban.
  • Trump's travel ban blocked refugees and travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries, causing some of them to be detained at Logan Airport in Boston.
  • Warren demanded information from Kelly about her constituents in an email, but Kelly did not respond for a week and later reportedly denied ever getting the emails.
  • Warren then reportedly read the emails back to Kelly and trashed him as being bad at his job and a possible misogynist.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts reportedly issued a fiery statement against former Homeland Security John Kelly, following the revelation of an email in which Kelly described the lawmaker as "an impolite arrogant woman."

In the February 2017 emails obtained by BuzzFeed News through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, Kelly mentioned he had the "absolutely most insulting conversation" with the Democratic lawmaker regarding President Donald Trump's executive order blocking refugees and travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries.

"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," Kelly wrote of his phone call with Warren, and in reference to a temporary restraining order on Trump's travel ban.

Warren, who took part in a demonstration at the Logan Airport among her constituents, personally reached out to Kelly and demanded answers about the situation, according to an anonymous congressional source in BuzzFeed News's report. Kelly reportedly did not respond to Warren for a week, and later denied she had tried to make to contact with him.

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John Kelly

Leah Millis/Reuters

White House chief of staff John Kelly.

Warren appeared to be aware of Kelly's emails and confirmed the background details from the congressional source. In an emailed statement to author David Dayen, Warren wrote that she and her staff "tried to get answers from the Department of Homeland Security," but that "there was only one problem."

"Trump's new Director of Homeland Security - John Kelly - wouldn't return our calls and emails," she said in the email. "My staff emailed back and forth with his staff, but we couldn't get them to set up a call or answer our questions."

Warren went on to claim that when she finally made contact with Kelly, he "brushed me off" and instead of providing her with a phone number for his office, directed her "to the main line listed on the Department of Homeland Security's website (really)."

Warren alleged Kelly "bizarrely" believed she was fabricating her story and "insisted I'd made the whole thing up."

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"I happened to be looking at all the emails between his staff and my staff when he said this, so I started reading them to him," Warren said in the statement. "He accused me again of making it all up. "

"My policy staffers were in the room," Warren added. "And to this day, I've never seen so many jaws drop in unison. It was one of the first times we saw 'alternative facts' so up close and personal."

Warren wrote that she continued to press Kelly for a direct line to his office and eventually obtained something more personal.

"So what happened next? You guessed it - I persisted," Warren wrote. "I asked again for his number. He hemmed and hawwed, and he again tried to give me the Department's main line. Let's just say that's when the conversation really started getting awkward - and that I persisted longer than he did. Eventually, he didn't just give me his office number - he gave me his cell number."

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Warren continued scolding Kelly by disparaging his current role as Trump's chief of staff, a position he took on after Reince Priebus was ousted in July 2018.

"He can't even get Donald Trump off Twitter, and as far as I can tell, that was his main job description when he took on the role of White House chief of staff," Warren wrote.

"'Blah blah blah.' That's all he had to say when he was called out for breaking the law and destroying lives," Warren added in her email. "And I don't know about John Kelly - but there are some men who can only hear 'blah blah blah' whenever a woman's talking."

"Was I tough on John Kelly in that phone call? You bet I was. And apparently he didn't like it."

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