'Class warfare' video of Elizabeth Warren goes viral

Updated 12:33 p.m. ET

A video of Democrat Elizabeth Warren passionately rebutting the idea that taxing the wealthy is "class warfare" has gone viral, giving some liberals hope that she could give a strong challenge to GOP Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts next year.

The video of Warren, a Harvard law professor and consumer advocate who recently left the Obama administration, has been viewed more than 112,000 times on YouTube since it was posted last week.

In the video, shot in August as she was testing the waters for the Senate race, Warren challenges Republicans who believe taxing the wealthy amounts to "class warfare."

"There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody," Warren said.

She went on to say: "Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along."

The video on YouTube includes a disclaimer that it was shot by someone in the audience at the event who was not a member of Warren's exploratory campaign committee.

Warren is one of several Democrats running for a chance to take on Brown next year. Brown was the surprise winner of a special election last year to succeed Edward Kennedy in heavily Democratic Massachusetts.

Brown, at the time a little-known state senator, was the underdog in the Senate race against Democrat Martha Coakley, the Massachusetts attorney general. Brown made an issue of Democratic health care legislation and he benefited from Coakley's low-key campaigning and gaffes, including her incorrect suggestion that former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling was a New York Yankees fan.

Brown has already banked more than $10 million for the 2012 election. A public opinion poll taken this summer shows the GOP senator is popular in the Bay State, with a 62% favorable rating among likely voters.

Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a liberal group, has raised more than $340,000 for Warren's campaign and has been actively helping her with fundraising and grass-roots organizing.

"In one week, Elizabeth Warren has eloquently expressed the case for progressive government that voters have been waiting years for," said Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, as she urged Democrats across the country "study and emulate her message."

Kyle Sullivan, a spokesman for Warren's campaign, says the candidate "is speaking from the heart about the fight she's waged her whole life to even the playing field so working families and small businesses get the opportunity to get ahead."

But Brian Walsh of the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee suggests Warren is being hypocritical with her comments.

"Given the fact that Professor Warren was paid almost $200,000 by a major insurance company to help in their legal battle against asbestos victims -- on top of her $350,000 salary at Harvard -- it sounds like she's speaking from experience when she says 'there is nobody in this country who got rich on his own,' " Walsh said in an e-mail.