Time magazine took a credibility hit with social media users Tuesday after touting Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s DNA test as a bold political decision.

The Massachusetts lawmaker came under fire from Republicans, Democrats, the Cherokee Nation and a host of pundits this week after revealing that she may have anywhere between 0.09 percent to 1.5 percent American Indian ancestry.

Time, however, said she was “weaponizing transparency” in ways that could pay off politically down the road.

“Elizabeth Warren’s DNA test shows how she’s weaponizing transparency,” the publication tweeted Tuesday.

Writer Ryan Teague Beckwith asserted that while Ms. Warren’s decision may have “backfired in the short run” with critics, “being transparent could bolster one of Warren’s likely [presidential] campaign themes — if she chooses to run — of strengthening anti-corruption laws.”

At issue regarding the Democrat’s heritage are accusations that she misrepresented herself to increase the likelihood of gaining employment at the law schools at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, and/or that those universities touted her Indian claims to prove how ethnically diverse they are.

She has claimed that racist grandparents disapproved of her parents’ marriage because of her mother’s Cherokee heritage.

A sampling of the negative feedback to Time’s article:

“Example #1 why Trump’s bashing of the media is effective.”

“I think it shows how she is weaponizing lying and with @Time’s help, she is weaponizing media bias. How can you guys write this stuff?”

“You were once respected, but this is a joke.”

“So this is the theory you are going with, huh? Y’all must sit around in think of the craziest theories/headlines you can write to justify nonsense.”

Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. released a statement Monday calling Ms. Warren’s actions a “mockery out of DNA tests and its legitimate uses while also dishonoring legitimate tribal governments and their citizens, whose ancestors are well documented and whose heritage is proven.”

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