Elizabeth Warren cracks open a beer and takes questions in Instagram video promoting herself as President for 2020 after Trump takes aim at her mental health with nasty 'You'd have to ask her psychiatrist' barb

Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren cracked open a beer on-camera on an Instagram livestream on New Year's Eve, and took questions from followers.

The seemingly-spontaneous video channeled similar social-media efforts by former Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke and incoming New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, following Warren's announcement Monday that she is forming an exploratory committee for a 2020 run.

She is the first candidate to take the major step toward a run in what is expected to be a crowded field.

'I'm here in my kitchen, uh, and um, I thought maybe we'd just take some questions and I'd see what I can do,' Warren, 69, began as she looked into a camera apparently set up on a countertop.

After taking questions for a while the Senator said: 'Hold on a second -- I'm gonna get me a beer,' before walked out of view of the camera and returning bottle in hand

The Instagram livestream echoed similar down-the-lens efforts by O'Rouke and Ocasio-Cortez

Sen. Warren said she and her husband watch Casablanca together every New Year's Eve 

 She continued: 'It's been kind of an amazing day. So, today, I, um, got up early this morning, and, uh, talked to a bunch of folks on the phone, and then went outside and talked to the press -- and this is our house, and has been for a long time, and there are all these reporters, and trucks, and everybody outside the house.'

Shortly afterwards she said: 'Hold on a second -- I'm gonna get me a beer,' and walked out of view of the camera.

Warren, who has a proven track record as a small-dollar fundraiser, announced upon returning that she has already received donations from individuals in all 50 states, the District, and Puerto Rico, adding: 'It really has been an exciting day,' she said.

She told followers she and her husband would be following their usual New Year's Eve routine: 'We watch Casablanca, we get some good food ... and, um, we sit there upstairs and we watch Casablanca.' 

She added the movie fills her with hope. 

Incoming New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 29, used Instagram stories and livestreams during her run last year to connect with her supporters. Beto O'Rourke often broadcast himself cooking at home during his failed bid to unseat Ted Cruz in Texas.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez cooks and takes questions on Instagram live

Loaded: 0%

Progress: 0%

00:00

Previous

Play

Skip

Mute

Current Time0:00

/

Duration Time0:00

Fullscreen

Tonight's Instagram effort by Senator Warren may have been inspired by social media videos by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Ocasio-Cortez’s communications director told Rolling Stone his candidate thought social media had 'more capacity for transparency and just to be herself'.

President Donald Trump said on Monday that he would 'love to run' against Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, though one would have to 'ask her psychiatrist' if she has a chance to win.

It was unclear what Trump meant by the comment, which he made during an interview on the Fox News Channel on Monday.

'I wish her well, I'd love to run against her,' the President told Fox News after Warren announced that she was forming an exploratory committee - the first step which indicates a plan to eventually run for the White House.

Trump then mentioned the controversy over a DNA test which Warren took to prove that she is of Native American origin.

Fox News Privacy Policy

President Donald Trump conducted a phone interview with Fox News contributor Pete Hegseth (left) on New Year's Eve 

'She did very badly in proving that she was of Indian heritage,' Trump said. 

'That didn't work out too well. I think [Fox News reporter Pete Hegseth] ha[s] more than she does, and maybe I do too, and I have nothing. 

'So we'll see how she does.'

When Trump was asked if she can win, he replied: 'Well, I don't know, you'd have to ask her psychiatrist.' 

Warren dodged questions on Monday about her biggest political liabilities as she jumped headfirst into the 2020 Democratic presidential primary process. 

In announcing the formation of a presidential exploratory committee, Warren staked out the first significant territory in what will likely be a crowded field of Democrats itching for a swing at Trump.

President Donald Trump said on Monday that he would 'love to run' against Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, though one would have to 'ask her psychiatrist' if she has a chance to win 

But she showed no sign she's ready to overcome the self-inflected scandal that has dogged her for years: her questionable claim of American Indian ancestry. 

The result was an unsteady performance that none of the three major cable news networks broadcast live from beginning to end. 

Asked in her first question as a candidate-in-waiting how she will respond to Democrats who worry that her slow-motion ancestry gaffe had left her too vulnerable to be electable, Warren defaulted to talking points.

'I'm in this fight because I understand what's happening to working families,' she said outside her home near Boston, standing alongside her husband Bruce Mann

Trump has long been critical of Warren for claiming to have Cherokee ancestry, a move the president claims gave her preferential treatment in university hiring at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.

Warren conceded this month that she is 'not a person of color,' following her embarrassing October release of DNA test data that concluded her proportion of American Indian blood might be as small as 1 part in 1,024 – lower than average European-Americans.

She sidestepped a separate question on Monday about whether her far-left brand of populism will polarize American voters, denying her meaningful support outside the liberal northeast U.S. and California.

Instead she acknowledged only that CEOs and investment bankers won't like her. 

'The problem we've got right now in Washington is that it works great for those who have money, to buy influence,' said Warren, 69. 'And I'm fighting against that, and you bet it's going to make a lot of people unhappy.'

The 69-year-old Democrat would not, however, rule out accepting help from super PACs built with their political contributions. 

'Would you take support from super PACs,' a reporter asked.

Despite a crush of TV cameras covering Warren's announcement and her short Q&A with reporters, none of the three big cable TV news networks broadcast the entire event live 

Warren, pictured walking away after the short press availability, said she's no fan of super PACs or the billionaire who fund them, but didn't rule out accepting their help in 2020

How she announced: Elizabeth Warren used New Year's Eve morning to make her presidential move in a video recorded in her kitchen but slickly produced

A flustered Warren said only that 'I don't think we ought to be running campaigns that are funded by billionaires, whether it goes through super PACs or their own money that they're spending.'

That fell short of a pledge to shun their help as she runs for the White House. 

'I've already received donations from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico,' she boasted, before revealing that she would spend New Year's Eve with her husband doing what they always do: watching the 1942 film 'Casablanca.'

Trump aides licked their chops and laughed as they anticipated a battle between the president and the ultra-liberal swashbuckler he regularly mocks as 'Pocahontas.'

A Trump administration official with knowledge of the president's thinking said Monday that Warren 'will go down in flames,' and cracked a subtle Native American joke.

'She's going to somehow ride her far-left platform into the White House?' the official asked.

'How?'

'It's a dream come true,' said a second official, adding a fond hope that Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal would follow Warren into the race.

'Can we get Blumenthal to run too? More phony Democrats, please,' said that official.

Trump has similarly weaponized Blumenthal's past missteps, turning his military career into a case of stolen valor because he has falsely claimed to have fought in Vietnam.

Blumenthal served in uniform as a U.S. Marine reservist for six years but spent the war thousands of miles from harm's way. 

Warren's New Year's Eve launch guaranteed she had the nation's political spotlight largely to herself. 

'America's middle class is under attack,' the 69-year-old Massachusetts Democrat said in a launch video. 

'How did we get here? Billionaires and big corporations decided they wanted more of the pie. And they enlisted politicians to cut them a bigger slice.' 

She tried to strike a uniting tone, declaring that 'no matter what our differences, most of us want the same thing: 'to be able to work hard, play by the same set of rules and take care of the people we love. That's what I'm fighting for.' 

The Republican National Committee blasted out a scathing reply. 

Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said that Warren 'couldn't be more out of touch. With her lack of support from voters – including in her home state – on top of her phony claim to minority status, now that she is formally running Americans will see her for what she is: another extreme far-left obstructionist and a total fraud.' 

Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal is another liberal Democrat who Trump aides would like to see enter the 2020 contest, because of his false claims to have fought in Vietnam 

On the blocks: In an email to supporters, Warren said she'd more formally announce a campaign plan early in 2019. She can now raise money for a run

Warren burst onto the national scene a decade ago during the financial crisis with calls for greater consumer protections. 

She quickly became one of the party's more prominent liberals even as she sometimes fought with Obama administration officials over their response to the market turmoil.

Now, as a likely presidential contender, she is making an appeal to the party's base. Her video notes the economic challenges facing people of color along with images of a women's march and Warren's participation at an LGBT event.

In an email to supporters, Warren said she'd more formally announce a campaign plan early in 2019.

Warren is the most prominent Democrat yet to make a move toward a presidential bid and has long been a favorite target of President Donald Trump.

In mid-December, former Obama housing chief Julian Castro also announced a presidential exploratory committee, which legally allows potential candidates to begin raising money. Outgoing Maryland Rep. John Delaney is the only Democrat so far to have formally announced a presidential campaign.

But that's likely to change quickly in the new year as other leading Democrats take steps toward White House runs.

Greatest hits: Trump is likely to make use of his previous assault on Elizabeth Warren's claims of Native American roots, which he stepped up in the wake of her DNA test

Warren enters a Democratic field that's shaping up as the most crowded in decades, with many of her Senate colleagues openly weighing their own campaigns, as well as governors, mayors and other prominent citizens. 

One of her most significant competitors could be Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who is eyeing another presidential run harnessing the same populist rhetoric.

She must also move past the widely panned October DNA test stunt meant to bolster her claim to Native American heritage. Instead, the use of a genetic test to prove her ethnicity emboldened Trump's taunts of her as 'Pocahontas.' 

There was no direct mention of the controversy, or of Trump, in Monday's video. It did include images of the president and his inner-circle current and former aides who her base most loves to hate: Kellyanne Conway, Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon.

Warren has the benefit of higher name recognition than many others in the Democratic mix for 2020, thanks to her years as a prominent critic of Wall Street who originally conceived of what became the government's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

She now faces an arduous battle to raise money and capture Democratic primary voters' attention before Iowa casts its first vote in more than a year. 

She has an advantage in the $12.5 million left over from her 2018 re-election campaign that she could use for a presidential run.

Warren's campaign is likely to revolve around the same theme she's woven into speeches and policy proposals in recent years: battling special interests, paying mind to the nexus between racial and economic inequities.

'America's middle class is under attack,' Warren said in the video. 

'How did we get here? Billionaires and big corporations decided they wanted more of the pie. And they enlisted politicians to cut them a fatter slice.'