The Massachusetts Democrat ran afoul of the chamber’s arcane
rules by reading a 30-year-old letter from Dr Martin Luther King’s widow that
dated to Senator Jeff Sessions’ failed judicial nomination three decades ago.
The chamber is debating the Alabama Republican’s nomination
for attorney general, with Democrats dropping senatorial niceties to oppose
Sessions and Republicans sticking up for him.
King wrote that when acting as a federal prosecutor,
Sessions 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 Sessions, though senators have said far
worse stuff. And Warren was reading from a letter that was written 10 years
before Sessions was even elected to the Senate.
Still, top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell invoked the
rules. After a few parliamentary moves, the GOP-controlled Senate voted to back
him up.
Now, Warren is forbidden from speaking again on Sessions’
nomination. A vote on Sessions is expected Wednesday evening.
Democrats pointed out that McConnell didn’t object when Sen.
Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called him a liar in a 2015 dustup.
“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
said.
No comments:
Post a Comment