Some on political Twitter are grumpy that conservatives are having a laugh about this:

Happening now: @ewarren speaking to the DNC Native American Caucus Meeting. Which you can take as evidence that she has proven herself as an ally to those who know, or you can take as an excuse to make your jokes for the 5000th time. #mapoli pic.twitter.com/FtKnLjiPrS

— David S. Bernstein (@dbernstein) August 18, 2020

Fine. I choose to make jokes for the 5000th time.

She should have received 1/1024th of the allotted meeting time to speak.

https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/1295823531486388236

MOTHER OF GOD https://t.co/UEcikajnYQ

— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) August 18, 2020

Holy shit. She’s actually doing it. This is incredible https://t.co/gMbtBWoqi3

— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) August 18, 2020

😬 https://t.co/MFToJ0annJ

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) August 18, 2020

She had every right to be there. She’s a bona fide “Pow Wow Chow” contributor, Guy Benson reminds us.

Tomorrow night she speaks at the convention in primetime. I’m calling it now: Full headdress.

I didn’t watch the caucus meeting this afternoon but her involvement isn’t as weird as it seems. Since apologizing to Cherokee Nation for claiming tribal citizenship based on a DNA test, she’s tried to atone by championing Native American issues. It’d look bad, after all, if her political interest in American tribes evaporated the instant she conceded that she didn’t share their identity. So she’s done some outreach, meeting with representatives of 40 tribes in Oklahoma this past December as “part of a broader effort to highlight issues important to them.” Last August, when she was gaining traction in the Democratic primary from her “I have a plan for that” shtick, she published a lo-o-o-ng list of policy proposals for how America might honors its obligations to indigenous peoples.

We’ll see if any choice quotes emerge from the caucus meeting, e.g., Warren referring to “our people,” but I’m guessing she was there simply as an outsider signaling her support for Native American causes.

Either that or she did another DNA test and it turns out she’s 2/1024ths Cherokee and wanted to share the news.

Speaking of conventions, the Daily Beast reports this afternoon that TV network execs didn’t want to air more than one hour of the Democrats’ show because they knew they’d have to give Trump and the RNC equal time — and no one knows what the hell kind of crazy stuff might end up on the air in a Trump production:

“We don’t know what that content is going to be,” was the line offered up, according to one source…

Executives at multiple networks told The Daily Beast privately that they were still almost completely in the dark about basic details of next week’s RNC, including its format and its roster of speakers…

The president has complicated editorial decisions for TV executives in part because of his penchant for peddling lies, misinformation, and conspiracy theories. Networks have come under intense scrutiny from media critics and Democrats for giving Trump unfiltered air time to spread propaganda and/or failing to fact-check some of his more dangerous claims in real-time.

It’s possible that the executives were lying to Democrats and simply looking for an excuse not to air an extra hour or two of their convention. Conventions don’t draw big ratings anymore, after all, especially with so many options to watch online. And there may be less ad revenue available from those hours because there are fewer interruptions in the program.

But it’s also possible that they’re genuinely concerned about Trump-produced content. Turn your network over to him for more than an hour and God only knows what’ll end up on Americans’ screens. It could be the MyPillow guy pushing his COVID-cure miracle supplement, Tucker Carlson ranting about gypsies, Rudy Giuliani in a fugue state babbling about Ukraine — the sky’s the limit.

As your exit quotation, here’s a footnote from the newly released Senate Intel Committee report on Russia’s involvement in the 2016 campaign quoting Michael Cohen. No TV exec is trusting this guy with more than an hour of airtime. Anything could happen.

Hall of Fame contender for most f'd up thing to appear in a serious government report. But excellent use of deadpan by Trump. h/t @rcohen pic.twitter.com/JH70xWAVJT

— Charlie Savage (@charlie_savage) August 18, 2020