Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently began adding a new line to her presidential campaign stump speech.

“We can’t choose a candidate we don’t believe in just because we’re too scared to do anything else,” Warren said, for the first time, during a Democratic presidential debate in July. “And we can’t ask other people to vote for a candidate we don’t believe in.”

The Massachusetts senator also broke out the line earlier this month at New Hampshire Democratic Party Convention. And she repeated it again Monday night during a massive rally in New York City.

“We can‘t choose a candidate we don‘t believe in just because we‘re too scared to do anything else,” Warren said. “And Democrats can’t win if we’re scared and looking backward.”


The line has been interpreted by observers as a not-so-subtle shot — or, at least, counterargument — directed toward the Democratic presidential primary race’s current frontrunner, former Vice President Joe Biden, as Stephen Colbert noted during Warren’s appearance Tuesday night on “The Late Show.”

“Some people saw that — by some people, I mean everyone saw that — as a veiled shot at Joe Biden,” Colbert said. “Is that accurate?”

The question touches on a crux of the Democratic presidential race.

Polls have repeatedly found that most primary voters care more about nominating a candidate with the best chance of beating President Donald Trump in general election, compared to someone with whom they agree on the issues. That’s a potential problem for Warren; while polling has found that voters think she has the best policy ideas, the same surveys show that voters overwhelmingly think Biden has the best chance of beating Trump.

However, Warren told Colbert that her line about Democrats choosing “a candidate we don‘t believe in” isn’t about Biden.

Rather, she says it’s an acknowledgment of the “scary times” the country faces under Trump and an affirmation of the transformative policy agenda on which her campaign is built.


“We can hide under the covers or we can say, ‘No, we get it. The government isn’t working for us; Donald Trump is in charge, but things have been broken for a very long time.’ And instead of hiding, we can actually come together — all of us — fight back and make this the country we want to be,” Warren said.

“For me, this is about looking forward,” she said.

While Biden’s campaign has focused on repudiating Trump’s divisive polices and rhetoric, Warren has argued that the current moment calls for more than just defeating the Republican president.

“The truth is: A country that elects Donald Trump is already is serious trouble,” she said Tuesday.