Today Show Asks Elizabeth Warren If She’s Running for President Three Times in One Interview

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Senator Elizabeth Warren continued her months-long attempt to talk about anything other than running for president on the Today Show this morning. It did not go well.

The press has never taken Warren’s repeated no’s for an answer. But she has said no so many times that it seems, lately, that the press has moved on from asking whether she’s running to instead encouraging her to change her mind. See, for instance, the day the Boston Globe editorial page entirely gave itself over to such a task. Given these exhortations, someone probably needed to check to see whether any of the arguments had an effect on the Senator’s thinking since the last time she was asked if she’d reconsider running—which, for the record, was yesterday. This is where NBC’s Savannah Guthrie comes in.

In her interview with Warren, Guthrie is intent on asking the Senator if she is, ever has been, ever will be, or ever wants to run for president. Warren, meanwhile, seems to be engaging in a conversation with an invisible person who is asking her questions about interest rates on student loans.

Guthrie opens the interview with, “You didn’t think you’d get away with this interview without me asking point-blank: Are you going to run for president?”

Warren laughs and quickly says, “No, I’m not running, and I’m not going to run.” She then launches into a speech about other issues she’s focused on, including student loans.

But Guthrie isn’t quite ready to give up: “Let me make sure that we underscore this and maybe bold it and put it in all caps… Are you unequivocally and categorically saying, ‘I’m not running for president in 2016?'”

Warren says yes, that is what she’s saying, then talks some more about her issues.

Guthrie takes another approach: “You care so much about these issues, your supporters say, well then you’re the person—you’re the perfect person to go in and fight for them and take them on. They’re afraid that Hillary Clinton won’t give voice to these issues that you care about.”

To this, Warren tells a story about her college experience.

Guthrie nods, sympathetically, while her mind strains to rephrase her last question. Finally, she seizes on an opening: “I have to ask you whether you think Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee presumably in 2016, is she the right messenger for that?”

Warren answers that she’ll wait and see on the Clinton thing. Finally, Guthrie decides to move on.

Haha, just kidding! She asks Warren if she’s running for president another time.

“Possibly I’m beating a dead horse here,” Guthrie says. “But did you ever consider— entertain the possibility of running for president?”

“No,” Warren answers.

“Thanks for answering the question,” Guthrie relents, in a frank admission that there was, in fact, only one question asked through the entire interview. “I guess we put the speculation to rest this morning,” she adds.

No chance of that.