Republicans Ignite Backlash By Silencing Elizabeth Warren

After trying to make an example out of Sen. Elizabeth Warren on the Senate floor, Republicans inadvertently triggered a backlash, earning her censured comments much more attention than they would have otherwise received.

The Senate Republicans, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in particular, decided that Warren was imputing Sen. Jeff Sessions' motives while debating his appointment as attorney general as she quoted others who had criticized him. This allegedly violated an obscure Senate rule, leading Warren to be barred from speaking any further during the debate.

Warren's action won her extensive praise from liberal activists and Democratic supporters. #LetLizSpeak began trending on Twitter. Video of her comments attracted more than 7 million views on Facebook alone.

McConnell, the Republican from Kentucky, had his own word turned against him. After Warren had been warned once against criticizing Sessions, McConnell declared the reading of a letter from Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King's wife, to be the last straw.

"She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted," he said, referring to Warren.

This phrase, as seen below, became a rallying cry and meme.

The incident occurred after Warren quoted King, who had written a letter to the Senate in 1986 to oppose Sessions' appointment as a U.S. District Judge.

"'Mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens in the district he now seeks to serve,'" Warren said, reading from the King's letter. "'This simply cannot be allowed to happen.'"

Under Senate Rule 19, "No Senator in debate shall, 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."

And this is exactly what the presiding officer of the Senate, Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican from Montana, accused Warren of doing when she read a letter from the wife of Martin Luther King Jr.

"It’s been tough to watch all this good man has been put through in recent weeks," McConnell said of Sessions.

Other Democrats read the very same letter after Warren was silenced.

Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon read the letter, very explicitly making clear that he was quoting the wife of Martin Luther King: "She proceeds to address that there were occasions where individuals with legal authority chose to initiate cases specifically against African Americans while ignoring allegations of similar behavior by whites, choosing instead to chill  —  and now I’m quoting again  —  choosing instead ‘to chill the exercise of the franchise’ by blacks through misguided investigation."

Sen. Tom Udall, a Democrat from New Mexico, did the same:

Warren also read the letter on Facebook Live.

Warren was not only censored for reading from the King letter but also for quoting the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, who called Sessions a disgrace: "'He is, I believe, a disgrace to the Justice Department and he should withdraw his nomination and resign his position.'"

For this, Warren earned her first warning, while the quote from King justified the second. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, suggested that because the King letter was sent to the Senate it could arguably be considered a part of the body's record — which would be an odd thing to censure a Senator over.

Read the full text of the King letter below:

Lead photo credit: YouTube Screenshot/C-SPAN