In December, Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s brother David Herring told the Boston Globe he was “furious” to learn that Warren had started to call their father a janitor on the campaign trail.
The Washington Examiner reported:
“According to a family friend, David has disagreed with the way Warren calls herself the daughter of a janitor as she describes the work he found after losing a job as a salesman after his heart attack,” the Boston Globe reports.
Speaking with a family friend, Herring was adamant that his father was a maintenance worker, not a janitor. “My Dad was never a janitor,” he told the Globe.
Warren has referred to her father as a maintenance man in the past but has used the term “janitor” while on the campaign trail.
We know why Democrats are (almost) always eager to talk about their parents’ blue-collar roots (did you know John Kasich’s father was a mailman?), and frankly, as far as lies go, this would be one of Warren’s less consequential ones. Still, if her brother was furious before, he’ll be incensed at her new ad which calls him a janitor and pictures him next to a trash bin for authenticity.
Yikes. After her own brother publicly refuted her claim on campaign trail that their dad was a janitor—then press confirmed he was never a janitor—Warren is running a new campaign ad calling her father a janitor. And get this, using a photo of him with a garbage can as “proof” ? pic.twitter.com/tlbMKE4Tt5
— Mike Prysner (@MikePrysner) January 27, 2020
Very confusing since just telling the truth, that her dad was briefly a maintenance man for an apartment building, is still a working-class story. But this is how an Ivy League team from affluent lifestyles think they can relate to working people.
— Mike Prysner (@MikePrysner) January 27, 2020
The big question, though: Is Warren culturally appropriating the term “janitor” to describe her maintenance worker father? Young Turks contributor and Intercept bureau chief Ryan Grim says no.
People, a janitor and a maintenance man are the same damn thing. They maintain buildings. It's two names for the same job. One of Warren's Republican brothers has a classist hang up with the title janitor, you don't need to play along https://t.co/RUw9QGQRKT
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) January 28, 2020
Here’s video:
Elizabeth Warren’s ad includes the lie that her father was a “janitor,” something her brother was so furious about the first time she said it that he spoke to the Boston Globe to dispute it: https://t.co/ENI3Io5PAUpic.twitter.com/KOKh5F5hpO
— 29 U.S.C. § 157 (@OrganizingPower) January 27, 2020
We especially like how a woman who earned $400,000 at Harvard notes that Trump University was a “for-profit” school.
The theory here is that he was *actually* a maintenance man but she has pivoted to calling him a janitor to seem more working class but maintenance man is a working class job. We're talking late-'50s/early-'60s here. That job would include both fixing and cleaning, certainly then
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) January 28, 2020
And for the people asking if I've ever had a real job: I got into journalism in my late 20s and have been fired from more real jobs than I can count
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) January 28, 2020
So … are they the same damn thing?
They are different jobs – one cleans and stocks, the other maintains the structure and its physical function. I've done both, there's almost no overlap. Sorry your candidate is lying, but she's lying. https://t.co/0ajDIsCYCi
— Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) January 28, 2020
They are not the same thing. Clearly you have no clue. As a former janitor and the son of a building maintenance specialist I’m deeply offended by this analysis. Do some damn research before spouting such nonsense! #WarrenLies
— David Schor (@davidschor) January 28, 2020
They are not the same things. A janitor cleans and replaces consumable stock. A maintenance man performs often complex repairs on both structures and systems within those structures. Absolute night & day difference.
— Jack Decker (@MrDecker1MMAGC) January 28, 2020
No
1
Janitor ≠ Maintenance man
While janitors do do minor repairs,
Maintenance people never do any cleaning,
which is major chunk of janitor's job2
Warren's dad "was" neither. When he lost his regular job, he took on maintenance work for a few monthshttps://t.co/4kMKvYD10G— OC2PS (@theoc2ps) January 28, 2020
Alas they are not. It's a weird thing to go after Warren for since both are blue collar, but to say they're the same is also a lie.
— single issue abortion voter (@CrocsLyfe) January 28, 2020
— TrueAnon Pod (@TrueAnonPod) January 28, 2020
The maintenance men at my work make $25-40 an hour while the janitorial staff is contracted and make much less. This is because they do wildly different things
— TrueAnon Pod (@TrueAnonPod) January 28, 2020
This is blatantly wrong
— Matzo Man (@NeeNeinNyetNo) January 28, 2020
All due respect are you a rich kid or something? They are not the same thing.
— Wedge Cap ??? (@KarateGrizzly) January 28, 2020
They actually are not the same. A maintenance man typically also repairs minor issues and does site maintenance. I am a janitor. My ob is to clean and only clean. Please stop acting as if you have a clue. She was ashamed he had my job because she is an elitist. Period.
— Alyss the ice hearted ?✨✨✨? (@Alyssumn35) January 28, 2020
Why did Elizabeth Warren pivot if there's no diff?
For decades, she said her dad was a maintenance man but now that she's running for prez, she thinks janitor sounds more humble–much like she tries to steal the valor of being a public school teacher–a job she did for 1 yr.
— ?A NobodyforBernie2020?VoteForBernie? (@BernForBernie20) January 28, 2020
She was actually a speech pathologist and not a teacher. If I remember correctly she had like ONE hour a day with the kids.
— Meretricious Profligacy (@MeretriciousPro) January 28, 2020
If the air conditioner is broken in your apartment, the person who comes to fix it is not a janitor.
— eviler of 2 evils (@StruggleGus) January 28, 2020
I work at a school. If I want the bathroom cleaned or restocked I call the janitor. If we need kitchen equipment fixed we call maintenance.
— Sutando user B WALL (@BW4LL) January 28, 2020
Ryan a maintenance man has a millwright it's not the same .
I find that offensive, have you ever had a real job?
— Pranay (@PranaysGhost) January 28, 2020
They are not the same thing Ryan. Don't be a champagne socialist.
— axiomsofdominion (@axiomsofdomini1) January 28, 2020
this is not true, ryan
maintenance people usually take care of machinery in a factory and if at a residential complex, they do things like yard work, spray for pests, and fix broke shit
"janitor" is exactly what that implies: trash pickup, and common area clean-up
— Tammy Haley✊? (@TammyT01) January 28, 2020
Literally not the same thing.
— Jeremy au Barca (@ProgDownTicket) January 28, 2020
Counterpoint: It isn't the same thing at all.
— Big Billy (@BaseballPled) January 28, 2020
He was a janitor/maintenance man for like 6 months while in between jobs. I worked as a landscaper for a spring and summer once, I wouldn't claim that as part of my professional career.
— Cheyne Belinsky ↙️ (@cheyne_belinsky) January 28, 2020
In every world I've visited, a janitor is unskilled cleaning labor & a maintenance man is a skilled repair person who's hired to resolve problems for a business/housing building. They're both working class but they're *not* the same thing. Matters, as part of her lying pattern.
— Tiney Dancer #NoWarInIran #Bernie2020MoreThanEver (@a9ymous) January 28, 2020
I agree that it’s kinda splitting hairs but Warren is obviously using the word “janitor” to try to make people think her upbringing was even more difficult. Saying “maintenance man” doesn’t evoke the same emotion.
— Southern Black Berner (@so_black_berner) January 28, 2020
Exactly.
I would argue they are quite different. A maintenance man fixes things/hires people to fix things; a janitor cleans (i.e., has lower status). The point: Warren has a long pattern of disingenuously "spinning" tales. Refusing to acknowledge this reveals rose-colored bias.
— Psychwriter1515 (@psychwriter1515) January 28, 2020
I spent 3 years working as a maintenance man and the only people who mistook me for a janitor were entitled college kids who assumed that since I had a plunger I must be their personal poop fairy to fix all their gross problems. My job was to clear pipes & fix stuff, not mopping.
— Darius (@dariushm_) January 28, 2020
I like your reporting @ryangrim but you're not correct on this one.
— Darius (@dariushm_) January 28, 2020
Respectfully, Ryan, you are completely wrong about this. A maintenance man does not mop up vomit and a janitor does not fix an air conditioner.
They are two different things.
The conversation can be about whether it's a big deal, but these are two different jobs.
— Quasar Funk (@FunkQuasar) January 28, 2020
Tell that to the facilities people here that don’t mop anything or vacuum. They are not the same thing in every place. Please don’t be this out of touch.
— Joshua Eli (@JoshuaEli23) January 28, 2020
Ryan, take it from me – I've worked as a cafeteria and kitchen "custodian" and I've worked as a a doorman in a condo building that was staffed with several maintenance workers and they are without a doubt not the same thing. Warren is doing "working-class-face" here lol.
— mustlovedongs (@mustlovedongs1) January 28, 2020
My uncle started as a maintenance man in HVAC at our local university, and retired a department head. Full benefits, state pension, etc. A janitor at our local university makes $12/hour. Big difference. Skilled vs. unskilled work.
— Misanthropoetry (@misanthropoetry) January 28, 2020
My dad actually was a janitor. No he was NOT a maintenance man. His job absolutely did NOT require fixing things…only cleaning. Yeah, no…wrong here buddy.
— Helena ?NobodyWoC for Bernie? (@Sisterray63) January 28, 2020
They are not the same thing. My father was a maintenance man when I was young. It was not the responsibility of the janitor to fix furnace, AC, plumbing issues, electrical problems, etc. Maybe you’re too embedded w/Warren campaign to see the differences, but this ain’t semantics
— Billy B (@HomoWMD) January 28, 2020
Sorry. Ryan, as I'm sure others have already said, maintenance man and janitor are not the same thing.
My maintenance guy is responsible for maintaining safety and quality of units and building.
My janitors are responsible for cleaning the building.
Major diff between the 2.
— Michael Roman (@rat4prez) January 28, 2020
A lot of people have chimed in on this one, and it really isn’t that big of an issue — unless you consider Warren’s track record of embellishing her past.
Related:
‘Seriously, sweetie’: Elizabeth Warren still campaigning on how she was fired for being visibly pregnant https://t.co/sy1B32NHtt
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) November 9, 2019
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