It's a safe bet to say that in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, nothing is surprising anymore. With Donald Trump successfully hijacking the Republican nomination race and Hillary Clinton having to fight to connect with younger voters, you'd think every kind of vitriol and political feuding would be old hat by now. But then again, we still have to get into OPPOSING political parties duking it out.

And now we've got a preview bout before the big showdown leading to the general election. Because notorious consumer advocate and political liberal scion Elizabeth Warren (the current Senior Senator from Massachusetts) is stepping up to Trump and he's starting to fire back.

On Monday, Warren posted an epic take down of the real estate mogul-celebrity candidate, aimed directly at his self-proclaimed success as a business man. Her opening line to the post? "Let’s be honest – Donald Trump is a loser." Ouch.

The 290+ word rant goes on to detail how Trump's failings fuel his confrontational style, highlight just how important this election is, warn that "many of history’s worst authoritarians started out as losers," calls Trump "a serious threat," and ends with a vow "to make sure he ends this campaign every bit the loser that he started it."

You can read the whole thing below:

Let’s be honest – Donald Trump is a loser. Count all his failed businesses. See how he kept his father’s empire afloat...

Posted by Elizabeth Warren on Monday, March 21, 2016

Warren also tweeted out a few choice lines from her Facebook post.

The move is actually just the latest shot fired by Warren aimed at Trump. Last week she gave an interview in which she blamed Trump for the violence at his rallies and published a Facebook post saying the leading GOP candidate "is a bigger, uglier threat every day that goes by."

There's a history of demagogues calling those they disagree with "terrorists" and using that as justification for...

Posted by Elizabeth Warren on Monday, March 14, 2016

For his part, Trump's response to Warren is pretty lackluster compared to his reprisal to other critics, especially those that were women. He didn't criticize Warren's looks or bring up menstruation.

Instead, in an interview with the New York Times' Maureen Dowd over the weekend, when asked about Warren, he said that “I think it’s wonderful because the Indians can now partake in the future of the country. She’s got about as much Indian blood as I have. Her whole life was based on a fraud. She got into Harvard and all that because she said she was a minority.”

And then in a press conference on Monday, responded to questions about Warren with "Who is that, the Indian? You mean the Indian?”

If you're confused, here's the backstory that Trump is referencing: When Warren was first running for the Senate back in 2012, her opponent Scott Brown dug up some recorded claims by Warren that she was part Native American. Warren (who's originally from Oklahoma) cited what she was taught was her own family history (you know, by her family), even though later genealogical research failed to collaborate the claim.

Brown's campaign tried to make it seem like Warren used the claim for preference status, but The Boston Globe (among others) found that Warren didn't try cite ANY Native American heritage on her college and law school applications (she listed her race "white") and it reportedly wasn't considered when she was hired to teach at Harvard Law (contrary to Trump's implied statement, Warren never attended Harvard- her law degree is from Rutgers).

Warren and Trump trading barbs is kind of a big deal. Not just because Trump has an ever-growing shot at the Republican nomination, but because Warren's name has been touted by election watchers as a possible Vice President nominee. So the Senator's warnings about Trump's authoritarian rise may well be a solid test balloon of how the Democrats will deal with Trump if he makes it to the general election.

Hopefully Trump will come up with some better zingers by then. In the meantime, get the popcorn ready. This is only going to get uglier.

Tags
Elizabeth Warren, Donald trump, Presidential election 2016