A Weird Night In Brooklyn With Elizabeth Warren

Outside, Twitter and CNN reported on ballistic missiles. Inside, as people waited for Elizabeth Warren in a crowd massive enough to reduce service to nothing, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.”

“We have to start on a very sober note,” Elizabeth Warren began Tuesday night, unusually late and standing between two risers, filled mostly with young women holding glitter-trimmed cutouts that read “PEOPLE” (left) and “FIRST” (right).

An errant “WE LOVE YOU!” rang out, capturing the vaguely lit ethos of the Brooklyn crowd that came out to see Warren.

The news we couldn’t even see while we awaited the candidate for 40 minutes inside the giant Kings Theatre — a burgundy-and-gold tribute to a bygone era of cinema with a spectacular roof where now, deep in the heart of Brooklyn, you might see Sufjan Stevens play — was that the Iranian government launched missiles at a US military facility in Iraq, the promised retaliation for the death of Qassem Soleimani.

“This will be!” blasted the Warren campaign music throughout the ornate Kings Theatre, “an everlasting love!”

This set up a weird vibe, which could not exactly be helped.

Warren, joined by Julián Castro (here to make the case that she is the unity candidate), had addressed the thousand people standing outside. So each appeared before the long-waiting and vaguely lit crowd thrilled and performed a small dance, then immediately addressed missiles in Iraq and earthquakes in Puerto Rico.

“This is a reminder of why we need to de-escalate tension in the Middle East,” Warren said, offering her heart and prayers to our service members in Iraq, and noting her own brothers served in the military.

“The American people do not want a war with Iran,” she added emphatically.

It’s not like there was much obvious to add circa 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, when early reports were already being complicated and nobody knew much of anything about what actually happened and what will next.

Within a few minutes, Warren was already talking about bankruptcy and structural inequality to a crowd primed to hear it. As she said, “We’re going to have some fun tonight!”

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