Elizabeth Warren announces 2020 run for president against Trump

The Massachusetts Democrat, known for her critiques of big banks and corporations, became the first major candidate to declare her intentions with a video posted online on New Year’s Eve.

“America’s middle class is under attack,” she said. “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.”

Warren, 69, is entering what is likely to be a crowded Democratic primaryfield seeking to take on Donald Trump. Those considering bids include a slew of fellow senators such as Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand and Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, the former vice-president, and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

In her four and a half minute announcement video, Warren stressed the economic populist message that has brought her to national prominence.

She mixed old family photos with charts showing the declining middle-class share of income and the gap between black and white household wealth, and discussed her upbringing in Oklahoma and her family’s struggle to make ends meet after her father had a heart attack that left him unable to work.

“Working families today face a lot tougher path than my family did,” she said. “Our government’s supposed to work for all of us, but instead it has become a tool for the wealthy and well-connected.”

Warren did not mention Trump by name in the video, but it showed images of him along with allies Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon and Fox News personalities Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity. The video says: “The whole scam is propped up by an echo chamber of fear and hate designed to distract and divide us – people who will do or say anything to hang on to power.”