SENATE Republicans have silenced Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren for criticising attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions with the words of Coretta Scott King from three decades ago.
The Massachusetts politician, whose name has been prominent in speculation about the 2020 presidential race, was given a rare senate rebuke for impugning a fellow senator late on Tuesday and barred from saying anything more on the senate floor about the nominee.
The chamber is debating the Alabama Republican’s nomination for attorney general, with Democrats dropping senatorial niceties to oppose Mr Sessions and Republicans sticking up for him.
Warren produced a three-decade-old letter in which the civil rights leader wrote that Mr Sessions as an acting federal prosecutor in Alabama used his power to “chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens”.
Quoting King technically put Warren in violation of senate rules for “impugning the motives” of Mr Sessions, though senators have said far worse. And Warren was reading from a letter that was written 10 years before Sessions was even elected to the senate.But top senate Republican Mitch McConnell invoked the rules.
After a few parliamentary moves, the Republican-controlled senate voted to back him up. Now Warren is forbidden from speaking again on Sessions’s nomination.
Democrats seized on the incident to claim that Republicans were muzzling Warren, sparking liberals to take to Twitter to post the King letter in its entirety.
Warren argued: “I’m reading a letter from Coretta Scott King to the Judiciary Committee from 1986 that was admitted into the record.
“I’m simply reading what she wrote about what the nomination of Jeff Sessions to be a federal court judge meant and what it would mean in history for her.”
Warren was originally warned after reading from a statement by former senator Edward Kennedy that labelled Sessions a disgrace. Democrats pointed out that McConnell did not object when Republican senator Ted Cruz called him a liar in a 2015 dustup.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here