Feb. 8 (UPI) — Senate Republicans passed a rebuke of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., silencing her from speaking during debate over Jeff Sessions‘ nomination as attorney general.
While Warren read aloud a letter by Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King Jr., that she wrote about Sessions during his confirmation for a federal judgeship three decades ago, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., interrupted Warren’s speech and said she broke Senate rules by reading past statements.
The Senate voted 49-43 along party lines on Tuesday to rebuke Warren, who was accused of violating Rule 19 of the Senate that says senators are not allowed to “directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another senator or to other senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a senator.”
“I will not be silent about a nominee for AG who has made derogatory & racist comments that have no place in our justice system,” Warren said after the rebuke.
In the letter, King wrote that Sessions used “the awesome power of his office to chill the pre-exercise of the vote by black citizens.”
Prior to reading King’s letter, Warren quoted late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who was a senior member of the Judiciary Committee who opposed Sessions’ nomination to become a federal judge.
“He is, I believe, a disgrace to the Justice Department and he should withdraw his nomination and resign his position,” Kennedy said, which Warren quoted.
Tonight @SenateMajLdr silenced Mrs King’s voice on the Sen floor – & millions who are afraid & appalled by what’s happening in our country.
“Sen. Warren was giving a lengthy speech. She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation,” McConnell later said. “Nevertheless, she persisted.”
In 1986, the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee rejected Sessions for a post as federal judge after he was accused of racially charged comments and actions.
During confirmation hearing testimony before the committee, former colleagues said Sessions referred to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other organizations as “communist inspired” and “un-American organizations with anti-traditional American values.”
Thomas H. Figures, an African American who previously served as a federal prosecutor alongside Sessions, said Sessions called him “boy” — a term considered a racial slur within context — and said Sessions said the Ku Klux Klan was fine “until I found out they smoked pot.” Sessions would later dismiss the Ku Klux Klan comment as a joke, adding that the organization was a “force for hatred and bigotry.”
