"By the time we get to 2020, Donald Trump may not even be president. In fact, he may not even be a free person," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren. | Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo 2020 Elections Warren: Trump 'may not even be a free person' by 2020

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Sunday said that President Donald Trump “may not even be a free person” by 2020, suggesting the president might become ensnared by the special counsel’s investigation before she has a chance to face him in a general election.

“Every day there is a racist tweet, a hateful tweet — something really dark and ugly,” Warren said during a campaign event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “What are we as candidates, as activists, as the press going to do about it? We’re going to chase after those every day?”


She added: “Here’s what bothers me. By the time we get to 2020, Donald Trump may not even be president. In fact, he may not even be a free person.”

The jab marks Warren's first foray into campaign-trail skirmishing with Trump since entering the Democratic presidential fray with a Saturday announcement event in Lawrence, Mass.

During her kickoff speech, Warren, a consumer protection advocate and former Harvard Law School professor, attacked Trump as being part of a “rigged system that props up the rich and the powerful and kicks dirt on everyone else.”

Earlier Saturday, Trump mocked Warren’s rollout and took aim at the controversies surrounding her past claims of Native American heritage, which intensified Wednesday after The Washington Post revealed that she had identified herself as American Indian on her Texas State Bar registration card.

“Today Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to by me as Pocahontas, joined the race for President,” Trump tweeted. “Will she run as our first Native American presidential candidate, or has she decided that after 32 years, this is not playing so well anymore?”

“See you on the campaign TRAIL, Liz!” the president added, in what many Democrats judged to be a reference to the forced relocation of several Native American tribes in the Southeast U.S. in the 1830s known as the Trail of Tears.

Warren’s post-announcement national tour is set to include nine events over 10 days in all four early presidential primary states and Georgia and California. She launched her presidential exploratory committee Dec. 31.